Effects of a Weekend-Long Field Course on Undergraduates' Confidence, Identity, and Belonging

Field courses often serve as undergraduate students' first exposure to field-based learning and are associated with a range of positive student outcomes including confidence in research skills, motivation to take more science classes, and learning gains. However, barriers such as family or work time commitments (i.e., most field courses are 7 weeks) can limit participation and inclusion, particularly for marginalized students. Much of the existing literature centers around traditional, multi-week field experiences, creating a need to better understand outcomes related to shorter field courses. This study explored a weekend-long field course designed to provide an early, low-stakes research experience for undergraduate ecology and environmental science majors. Over 3 years and seven iterations of the course, we collected pre/post survey data (n = 104) in order to understand the efficacy of the short field course. After accounting for differences in student backgrounds, we found significant increases in research confidence, research identity, and sense of belonging. These findings suggested that even short field courses can have positive effects on students, similar to those resulting from multi-week field experiences. This course can serve as a model for other universities and programs aiming to increase accessibility of field experiences and ecology as a career path.