ET CURE Undergraduate Program Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology -

Summative Evaluation Report

Authors

Pam Castori, Laurie Lopez, Heather Mitchell, Inverness Research

Purpose

Inverness Research was hired in the summer of 2011 to do an external summative evaluation of the ET CURE program since its inception (2009). The ET CURE program at UC Davis is co-sponsored and funded by the Center for Biophotonics Science and Technology (CBST) and by the NCI's Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities (CRCDH).

The aim of the evaluation is to address the following evaluation questions:

• Program Design: What are the critical design features of this program? How do those features articulate with the program goals, activities and outcomes?
• Student Experience and impacts: What are students' current college and career trajectories? In what ways and to what extent has the ET CURE program activities and design features influenced students' thinking about Cancer Research careers, and /or careers involving emergent technologies? What other kinds of influences and impacts did the program have on students?
• ET CURE Research Mentors Experiences and Perspectives: How has the mentorship program influenced CURE faculty's ideas about education and outreach? What are the challenges associated with this program and how are they met? What insights and suggestions do they have about the design and outcomes of the program?

Purpose and Organization for this report: This report is written to provide the project leadership with external evaluation findings and insights that may be useful in the project's efforts to report to funders, generate publications, and to pursue future funding for the project.

Evaluation methods, presentation of results, findings and conclusions are organized into the following sections:

• Evaluation Methods
  
• Lenses for the Evaluation
  
• Results Part A: Portrayal of the Project Theory of Action
  
• Results Part B: Student Outcomes
  
• Results Part C: Mentor Experiences and Viewpoints

Discussion of results in light of the evaluation lenses, concluding ideas from participants, and perspectives from Inverness Research make up the final section of this report.

Intended Audience

Funders, the CURE program, Science Educators, Reform Leaders, District Administrators School and general public.

Date published

March 2012

Disclaimer

Any and all errors are claimed by the authors of this document, Inverness Research

Distribution Policy

Inverness Research grants permission to print and distribute copies.

View & Print Report

These links will launch an Acrobat Reader document. If you do not have the Adobe Acrobat Reader, click the button shown above.

DOWNLOAD REPORT (pp. 50)