The VERSE program immerses undergraduates in active faculty research projects, helping students explore potential careers while contributing as valued members of scholarly teams
This summer, undergraduates Alyla Meir and Andrew Barreda joined the research team of an NSF-funded study led by Bárbara Brizuela, School of Arts and Sciences dean and professor of education. (Shown left to right: Doctoral students Mathías López and Johyeon Chang, Meir, Barreda, and Susanne Strachota, research scientist.)
The first grader was staring at an equation that did not seem to make sense.
Watching a video of the child working on the problem, Alyla Meir, A27, could see him trying to solve it in a typical way: perform a calculation and find the answer. Then she saw his thinking shift.
“He suddenly seemed to realize that the equals sign indicated a relationship between the quantities on either side—and the equation made sense to him,” Meir says. “It was so awesome to see.”
The moment helped Meir understand not only the promise of teaching algebraic ideas early, but also the value (and potential excitement) of conducting mathematics education research.
It was exactly the kind of discovery that the VERSE (Visiting and Early Research Scholars’ Experiences) program is designed to make possible. The 10-week Tufts summer program introduces undergraduates to research by placing them directly on faculty projects. Tufts students (as well as undergraduates from other institutions) can apply to work with participating faculty members. Program participants gain hands-on experience alongside researchers while also attending workshops, professional-development sessions, and community activities with fellow VERSE scholars. The summer culminates in presentations of each student’s work.
An Ecosystem of Learners
For Meir, the program meant joining fellow undergraduate Andrew Barreda, E28, research scientist Susanne Strachota, AG11, and doctoral students Mathías López and Johyeon Chang, on a National Science Foundation-funded study led by Bárbara Brizuela, dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and professor of education.
Together, they formed what Brizuela describes as “a fascinating ecosystem of different learners at different stages of expertise.”
“I expected that, as a doctoral student, I would be helping [the undergraduate team members], but I’ve learned as much from them as I hope they have from me.”
For four consecutive summers, Brizuela’s team has brought VERSE scholars into their research. This year, Meir and Barreda helped code approximately 400 video interviews from the early-algebra study, identifying whether children answered questions correctly and which mathematical strategies they used. Strachota supervised their daily work; López and Chang analyzed interviews alongside them; and Brizuela led the study and advised their final presentations.
For Meir and Barreda, a key benefit of the coding process lay in the conversations it generated. Because children’s explanations were often incomplete or difficult to categorize, a single response could prompt the team to debate what the child understood and which code best captured that child’s thinking.
“Discussing our interpretations as a group allowed us to learn so much from everyone and also contribute our own ideas,” Meir says. “It was a valuable process.”
“By the end of the program, [Alyla and Andrew] were speaking the language of the research and had gained deep confidence,” says Bárbara Brizuela, who leads the study. “They were completely ready to present their own thinking to the wider VERSE community.” Photo: Alonso Nichols
Strachota saw the undergraduates’ willingness to question the team’s interpretations as one of their greatest strengths. “Alyla and Andrew pushed us to really articulate what we meant,” Strachota says. “They would ask, for example, why a response belonged in one category rather than another, and that sometimes prompted us to revisit ideas that had begun to feel settled.”
Chang and López agree. “They made me think about the data differently,” Chang says. “I expected that, as a doctoral student, I would be helping them, but I’ve learned as much from them as I hope they have from me.”
“We treated them as researchers and equal members of the team,” López adds. “We learned from them, and they brought an important perspective to the data.”
Brizuela was struck by how quickly Barreda and Meir had grown fluent in the project’s ideas and methods. “By the end of the program, they were speaking the language of the research and had gained deep confidence,” she says. “They were completely ready to present their own thinking to the wider VERSE community.”
The Lessons VERSE Taught
For Barreda’s part, the experience changed his understanding of how research happens. Before VERSE, he had pictured a largely linear, somewhat independent process: a single researcher poses a question, reviews existing studies, conducts an investigation, and arrives at an answer.
“The summer showed me how research can involve teamwork and collaboration,” he says. “You work with others to share ideas and gain a better understanding of the world.”
A mechanical engineering major and mathematics minor, Barreda had sought out VERSE partly to learn whether research might have a place in his future. He worried that it could feel isolating or draining and sometimes questioned whether he was “good enough” to become a researcher.
But working with Brizuela’s team encouraged him. After weeks of analyzing interviews, he was excited to see the work take shape in visualizations that could help others understand what children were learning from the early-algebra curriculum.
“When I saw the patterns in the data, I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s so cool to see all the work we put in come together,’” he says. He also appreciated how energizing the process felt: As he put it, “It’s an iterative effort that almost feels addicting because there is always more to learn, question, and teach.”
Meir entered the program with a different uncertainty. A mathematics major who had worked extensively with children, she had no previous research experience and had hesitated to pursue opportunities that required it. VERSE gave her a way to begin—and showed her that she could become a contributing member of a research group.
“I saw that I’m capable of bringing value and learning a lot quickly,” she says. “It’s okay if I don’t have the experience or skills yet. I can learn them on the job and still be a valuable member of a team.”
Brizuela says the experiences of these undergraduates capture what she hopes VERSE makes possible: the chance to take part in real research and leave with a clearer sense of where it might lead.
“The program allows students to ask, ‘Is this something I might be interested in doing in the future? What exactly does education research entail?’” she says. “They may discover that they love one part of it, want to explore another—or that they never want to do it again. All of those are valuable things to learn.”
