Designing a collaborative faculty-student mentoring model in a large, complex science curriculum development team project

Abstract

Scientific research endeavors are increasingly collaborative in nature. As researchers work together in groups of increasing size to develop project goals and implement plans, traditional 1-1 single faculty-student mentor models are less relevant as students need input and guidance from the multiple faculty members contributing to the collaborative project. Instead, faculty-student mentorship models would benefit from being re-envisioned to facilitate faculty mentors advising multiple student team members and students seeking feedback from multiple faculty team members, while also facilitating complimentary student peer mentorship opportunities. In this article, we present a case study of how student mentorship support was initially designed and managed in a large, complex, and multidisciplinary collaborative science curriculum development effort: the Earth Science Experiential and Indigenous Learning (EaSEIL) project.