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To improve retention and engagement, first-year college science majors enrolled in University Experience orientation courses participated in a hands-on laboratory research experience: a DNA barcoding project to facilitate species identification. Students collected arthropods and hypothesized morphology-based species identifications. Then they isolated DNA from specimens, performed polymerase chain reaction (PCR), sequenced the product, and performed a DNA-based identification, to test the morphological hypothesis. Participants in this exercise earned higher biology GPAs and were more likely to become a science major or remain enrolled at Western Kentucky University than students in a control section who did not participate in this research experience.