  Undergraduate research is widely regarded as a high impact practice. However,
usually only the highest achieving students are rewarded with undergraduate
research opportunities. This paper reports on the successful implementation of
a student research program offering the weakest 10% of incoming freshmen
opportunities to conduct original research in one of several science or
engineering disciplines with the possibility of publication if the research and
report meet a suitable standard, defined as earning an A on the final research
project report in the introductory math course. The opportunity has been
offered now for two years to incoming cadets at the United States Air Force
Academy who are placed in Basic Math. The cadets placed in this course score in
the bottom 5% of incoming cadets on the math placement exam. During the second
semester of their freshman year, cadets enrolled in Calculus 1 are also offered
a similar research opportunity. About 10% of cadets are enrolled in this course
each Spring, the 5% who began in Basic Math and matriculate to Calculus 1 and
the 5% who failed Calculus 1 in their first attempt. During the first four
semesters, the program has yielded 22 cadet papers which have been published or
are currently under review and expected to be published. This represents
approximately 38% of the projects in the program, because the majority of the
projects do not earn As and are not suitable for publication. Over 80% of the
cadet co-authors on the publication quality papers are minorities, women,
and/or intercollegiate athletes.
