On Defining "Research"

Gerald Graff, Professor of English and Education, University of Illinois at Chicago

How do we define the "research" in "undergraduate research"? I know that some express skepticism about the possibility of arriving at a useful working definition, but I suspect this skepticism stems from the feeling that the disciplines are too diverse and different from each other to be described in terms of any common practice.

In my view, however, there is a perfectly clear-cut and defensible way to define the term "research," one that is based on common usage within the academic world and beyond. "Research" is best defined simply as work that enters the current conversation of a particular field in some significant way.

This definition has the advantage of being simple yet at the same time susceptible to a wide range of applications across the different disciplines. It also has the advantage of recognizing that what counts as good research changes from one period to the next in the history of any discipline. Though it represents an understanding of research that is in some ways patently obvious, it is not at all obvious to many undergraduate students or even (alas!) to some established faculty members. For this reason, it is a definition that has real "bite," making a difference in how we behave if we accept or reject it.

What gives the definition bite is the fact that most students and even some faculty members confuse "research" with amassing information and ideas in a vacuum rather than using information and ideas to enter the conversation of a field. Undergraduates are particularly prone to see research in this monological way--as a business of piling up information and ideas in a vacuum rather than of entering into a field's conversations.

I became vividly aware of this misconception about the nature of research when I was asked in 2000 to direct our new Undergraduate Research Symposium at UIC. In order to apply to present their research at the symposium, UIC undergraduates were asked to compose and submit short summaries of their projects. The vast majority of these summaries turned out to be monological, consisting of a set of statements about the students' findings or conclusions with no effort to frame the statements as a response to discussions going on the relevant field.

Here, for example, is how a student in the sciences opens his summary:

This study demonstrates that a decrease in renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure (RIHP) accounts for the blunted pressure natureses during pregnancy....

The statement continues in this vein to the end. What is missing from it is any indication of how its claim--that a decrease in RIHP accounts for the effect described in pregnancy--responds to what other researchers in the area have said or thought, whether those researchers might dispute the claim, agree with it, or what. Because the writer gives no indication of the existing state of the conversation on RIHP, the reader has trouble grasping the point: is the writer challenging existing views on RIHP, adding to them, reconceptualizing them, or what?

Another student in the social sciences summarizes his project in the same monological way:

My study of Belize shows that its culture is very diverse. The people of Belize manifest a great variety of ethnic, gender, and cultural styles....

Again, the statement goes on in this vein to the end. Again, what is missing is an indication of how its claim--Belize is a diverse culture--bears on other relevant research, whether to dispute it, to agree with it, or what. Again the writer's failure to indicate the state of the existing conversation, in this case on the culture of Belize, makes it difficult for readers to grasp the point of his or her research.

In the humanities, undergraduate research also frequently takes this monological form, consisting typically of a series of claims about a text with no indication of how those claims bear on what other researchers, in this case literary critics, think or have said about the text. To take a hypothetical example, "In Shakespeare's Hamlet, there is a preponderance of images of light and dark,..." Again, the problem is that when claims are framed in this way, readers have no way of knowing WHY the writer is making them: has nobody noticed the images of light and dark? Would anyone dispute the claim that they predominate? In short, why make these claims in the first place? To put it another way, unless one indicates how one's claims bear on the conversation of others who have discussed the play, readers are left wondering "who cares?" or "so what?"

How can undergraduate researchers turn such monological claims into dialogical ones, reframing them as entries into research conversations? The most direct way is to begin not with one's own claim, but with a brief summary of the state of the conversation. One can even represent this conversational move in a familiar template of the kind that experienced researchers know and take for granted:

Whereas others believe__________________________, my research shows that___________________________________.

Following this template (which is similar in fact to one that the life sciences journal Nature prescribes for contributors), the summaries above would be recast as responses to existing research, whether to dispute or modify it, agree with it, qualify it, or whatever is appropriate to the case. (For an application of this template approach to student writing generally, see Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, "They Say/I Say": The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (New York: W. W. Norton, 2006).

Of course some will object that just as it is unrealistic to expect undergraduates to come up with original research findings, it is equally unrealistic to expect such undergraduates to become familiar with the state of the research conversation in a given field. But while it is true that the deepest familiarity with such conversations cannot be expected of most undergraduates, it is also true that those undergraduates can get a surprisingly good start forming a picture of the research conversation in a field with a modest amount of work. And it is also true that such familiarity with the conversation can enable undergraduates to generate interesting and consequential claims without necessarily making astounding new discoveries.

Here for example is the opening of one undergraduate article, by Julia Pontecorvo, from Oculus: The Virginia Journal of Undergraduate Research (Spring 2006):

In much of the writing on the history of biology in America, historians have tended to focus on the institutional and epistemological changes in the discipline in the late nineteenth century, ignoring the existence of a relationship between them....

Note that Ms. Pontecorvo has derived her research argument--that historians of biology have ignored the relationship between one important aspect of their work (institutional changes) and another (epistemological changes) basically by listening closely to the conversation of the field and detecting an internal contradiction or disconnection in it. Ms. Pontecorvo thus makes an interesting and important contribution to a research contribution without unearthing new data. Granted, her ideas represent extreme and enviable sophistication for an undergraduate (or anyone else, for that matter!). Yet on the basis of this example, it does not seem far-fetched to think that undergraduates not yet as intellectually advanced as she can and will make interesting contributions to the conversations of the academic fields once they are set in this direction and encouraged to try.

University of Toronto Kenneth Bartlett, Professor of History and Renaissance Studies, Coordinator, Faculty Programs, Arts and Science and Director, Office of Teaching Advancement

Research Opportunity Program

The University of Toronto Research Opportunity Program (ROP), established by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 1995, derives from the principle that a research intensive university should not divorce the function of teaching undergraduates from the imperative to do innovative research. The two responsibilities are in many ways complementary and the ability of the researcher to integrate his or her students into the collective enterprise of research adds an important dynamic to the best schools. The ROP (299Y) is designed to permit students in their second year of undergraduate studies to work in the research program of a professor for course credit. The program targets second-year students for several reasons:

• To build on and continue the learning advanced in the University’s First Year Seminars (199Y), given by senior members of the academic community. The seminars are on subjects of the instructor’s choice and have no or little connection with the usual introductory curriculum, nor do they count towards a student’s major, minor, or specialist certification. They are highly interactive and intended to introduce newly admitted students to the idea that learning can be exciting, stimulating, and meaningful. One hundred seminars, each accommodating up to 24 students, are now being offered.


• To engage students early, when they are still fashioning their academic programs. If a research experience is to affect a student’s choice of course of study and career, it is imperative that it be enjoyed early enough in the student’s education to permit flexibility. By the third year, a student’s course of study is largely fixed, but after the second year there is still a chance to develop in new directions. Also, the skills, knowledge, and attitudes derived from undergraduate research can be applied to subsequent classes, including traditional lectures or seminar courses.


• To ensure that more senior candidates do not exclude the target population of the program.

While the ROP enjoy the First-Year Seminars as a platform, it is a considerably smaller program, offering in 2006 160 projects with about 200 places for students. Thus it is very competitive and attracts an elite group of students who see their future in research, graduate studies, or some form of independent study.

The Program
The ROP program consists of several components: A specially-created "research" course, supplementary enrichment activities, a Research Fair at which the students present their work, and faculty and peer mentoring.

The ROP course (299Y) is a credit-bearing course for which students are chosen through a selective application process. The students spend eight-to-ten hours per week assisting a faculty member on a substantial research project in their field. Their work must be appropriate to a second-year student and involve cutting edge research. In addition, ROP provides funds to support other activities throughout the year that promise to enhance the student’s research experience such as attending academic conferences, paying publishing charges, or providing additional equipment or material. Recently, in recognition of ROP’s considerable growth over the past year, the Dean of Arts and Science has promised up to $1500 per project in enhancement funds.

As with any other full-year credit course, ROP students are assigned a grade for their work. The course constitutes one of the 20 courses required for a degree and may be applied toward a major, minor or specialist certification in a degree program.

Since the faculty involved in ROP are conceived of as research supervisors or team leaders rather than classroom instructors, they are not given teaching credit for supervising ROP students. Rather, their reward is the capable research assistance provided by the students. At the same time, the student benefits from the experience, acquisition of skills and a credit. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows associated with the research team also benefit from the experience they gain in teaching and managing undergraduates and thereby learning the necessary skill of making complex problems clear through effective description and demonstration. The 299 sites have become instruments to research teaching styles and methods as much as extending knowledge. The diversity of the many constituencies that often constitute ROP teams serves almost as a microcosm of the university itself, and the culture revealed in the group a reflection of the larger culture of the academy. It is in part for these reasons that the experiment has been so successful and that some of our supervisors return again and again for new students to train and engage. Equally, a fortuitous secondary effect of the program has been that many students continue to study with their supervisors, work as paid assistants in their labs or during the summer in the libraries or archives; they continue on to do graduate work and use in their own lives the lessons acquired in their ROP experience.

The Annual ROP Research Fair, held every March, is a large and complex event at which the students exhibit posters or give demonstrations and presentations that illustrate their work. They also respond to questions and guide visitors through their material. Those supervisors who choose to attend observe how well the students explain their work, providing another means of assessment and the evidence to reinforce letters of reference and other instruments to help mentor ROP students through their careers. The Research Fair is a highlight of the program, as it focuses the students’ enthusiasm and knowledge and prepares them for the demanding task of linking their research to teaching by requiring each of them to explain often very complex experimental design and results to a general audience.

The Research Fair has become an important occasion in the University’s calendar, attracting a large audience that includes the students’ family and friends, the University president and/or provost, First Year Seminar students, and senior secondary school students who participate in the university’s mentorship program. Often there has been media coverage of the event as well, broadening the reach of the ROP and attracting even more highly motivated students to the University of Toronto and to the ROP.

The Peer Counselling System consists of ROP students from one year serving as peer mentors for the next generation as they enter the program. The ROP Office matches the students’ interests and course selections to ensure that there will always be another student outside the program who can offer advice and share the experience of what it is to be a ROP student. This is an important function, as ROP students often work in isolation or one-on-one with their supervisors or an intermediary such as a graduate student or post doctoral fellow who manages the experiment or team. Since there is no class culture to draw upon, they may be reluctant to discuss unsuccessful experiments, difficult assignments or inappropriate assessment with the research supervisor who will assign the grade for the ROP and serve as the referee and advocate of the student for future studies or employment. Through this peer mentoring function, individual ROP projects and the program as a whole have developed a kind of culture of shared experience and firm friendships. In a large public university where first year class sizes can number literally in the thousands, this is an achievement in itself.

Selection Process
The students are chosen through a demanding application process. By mid-February of the student’s first year of study, a binder containing short descriptions of all the projects to be offered in conjunction with the course is made available in the ROP Office, registrarial and departmental offices and elsewhere on campus. The descriptions consist of the research plan of a faculty member or research team. They contain not only the general purpose and methodology of the project, but the requirements for the ROP students, including the kinds of skills needed and the nature of the student’s contribution. Each project entry must be signed by the department chair to guarantee that necessary resources, such as lab space, equipment, materials and time, will be provided to the students in order to fulfil their responsibilities.

As part of the application process, students must identify the specific placements they seek. They can apply for placement in up to five 299Y projects, but can only enrol in one. Because the students have not yet received their first-year grades, their application relies, first, on their mid-term assessments, letters of reference and personal testimonials, and then, for a smaller group, on an interview. The selection of those to be interviewed is made by the project supervisors after a review of all the applications and accompanying materials. The final selection is made based on the usual criteria for admission to challenging programs: preparation, enthusiasm, perceived ability and collegiality. This process has worked extremely well and resulted in very successful student/supervisor collaboration.

Once the students are accepted into the course, the student and supervising faculty member each sign a "binding" contract that specifies the student’s role in the project, the projected time commitment and the means by which the student will be assessed. The student, supervisor, departmental office and ROP Office are all given copies of the signed contract. The contacts have proved to be useful in the small number of cases when problems have arisen over such issues as student’ not fulfilling their obligation, supervisors’ not adequately training their students or giving them mostly low level work, and disputes over assessment and grading.

Value
The University’s experience with the ROP over the past eleven has shown that its main values lie in its early engagement of students, who in their second year have some foundation, but are still exploring educational and professional options, and in its offering a research experience within a class structure culminating in a grade. The program recognizes student talent and reinforces what are often inchoate student ambitions. It also helps instil confidence that a career as a research scientist or scholar is possible. The class structure serves two functions. First, it is one with which students are familiar and feel comfort. Equally important, the need to provide assessment based on some form of objective criteria takes time and thought; and the contributions of undergraduate students must be structured according to the academic year, so that grades can be assigned at the appointed times and progress to advanced levels of the student’s program allowed. The ROP has become a signature program of the University of Toronto, and the message it sends is exactly the message we want heard among all of our constituencies: teaching and research are integrally related, two elements of the same enterprise pursued through different means. It is the definition of a modern university dedicated to excellence in teaching and research, and that is how the University of Toronto defines itself.

For more information
Contact Kenneth Bartlett, kenneth.bartlett@utoronto.ca

University of Nebraska at Lincoln Laura Damuth, Director of Undergraduate Research and Fellowship Advisor

The UCARE Program: Training undergraduate scholars

The Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences (UCARE) program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is a two-year program that trains students in research methodology while giving them a paid research or creative experience. UCARE engages second- and third-year undergraduates across all disciplines in an intensive research project through which they learn to think critically and gain the knowledge and skills to enter the scholarly conversation of their discipline. Not only are students exposed to research and able to participate, but they are also indoctrinated into the culture and language of their chosen field of study.

In the first year of UCARE, a student works as a research assistant for a faculty member on the faculty member's ongoing research or creative activity, learning the methods and techniques of the discipline. The student essentially engages in "learning by doing" -- learning why and how the faculty member conducts their work by assisting them in essential tasks. The student may learn such skills as how to do a literature review, write code, collect data whether in the laboratory or archive, and use tools and techniques specific to a project.

In the second year the student advances to a more independent project. They begin by proposing a project which they will carry out under the sponsorship of the faculty mentor with whom they worked during the first year. The project may be an extension of or related to their first year experience or it may simply build upon skills gained in the first year. The program culminates in the student giving a presentation at the annual Undergraduate Research Conference in the spring.

Throughout the program the UCARE Director offers a series of workshops to help students with poster or PowerPoint presentations, applying to graduate school, and the process of applying for nationally competitive scholarships and fellowships.

The key factor in a UCARE project is the partnership with the faculty member who serves as the mentor for the project. Because the UCARE office is not a matching service for project partners, students and faculty need time to find each other. Students are not required to engage in research in their chosen major, but most do since a certain amount of introductory knowledge in the field is typically needed. Thus students generally begin the two-year program in their sophomore or junior year. To apply to UCARE, the faculty member and student complete a UCARE application together and are accepted into the program as a “research pair.” Then, as a pair, the student and faculty member must reapply for a second year of the program. Selected students receive a stipend of up to $2000 per year.

In the six years since its inception, UCARE has had over 2000 students participate. Of these, 78% have gone on to graduate or professional school and a number have received prestigious scholarships like the Fulbright and Rhodes. In keeping with UNL’s goal for UCARE to cut across all disciplines, student projects have come from a wide range of fields, and in fact more than 50% are in fields outside of the traditional laboratory sciences, such as Architecture, Art and Art History, Music, History, English, and Textiles. Faculty in the arts and humanities often do not have a tradition of involving undergraduates in their scholarship nor external funds to support such endeavors. Thus, one of the attractions of UCARE is that it provides paid research assistants who can also function as junior colleagues.

For example, Dr. Peter Lefferts, music historian, has been researching the use of music at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition in Omaha in 1898. His UCARE student, a native of Omaha, has been an invaluable junior colleague, working in the archives in the Omaha libraries and in the State Historical Society in Lincoln and combing through thousands of newspaper articles on the fair looking for music references. In her second year, she built a searchable website calendar showing when and where music was performed.

Another example is the inclusion of UCARE students in the quilt studio of Professor Michael James, internationally acclaimed contemporary quilt artist in the University’s Department of Textiles, Clothing, and Design. In their first year, students learn the basic techniques of making a quilt by cutting the fabric and machine sewing it according to Professor James’ plan. By their second year, they are prepared to design and execute their own quilts.

The success of these projects and the success of the students who have engaged in meaningful research experiences with faculty have led to increased interaction between students and faculty and changes in the undergraduate culture. What better way to academically engage our students at a large research university than through research itself?

For more information
Visit the UCARE web site at http://www.unl.edu/ucare/ or contact Laura Damuth, UCARE Director, at ldamuth@unlnotes.unl.edu.

University of South Florida Naomi Yavneh, Associate Professor of Renaissance Arts and Letters and Director of UR USF – Office of Undergraduate Research Robin Ersing, Ph.D., MSW, Assistant Professor, Social Work

Expanding the Scope of the REU: Innovative Approaches

Established in 2004, the University of South Florida’s Office of Undergraduate Research ("UR USF") has as its charge to foster research opportunities for all of USF’s undergraduates and to encourage and support faculty mentorship of students. The Office approaches this task by offering workshops, academic year and summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates ("REU" programs) and grants that provide training and support for students who wish to engage in research,. The goal is prepare these students to engage in substantive research experiences with faculty mentors.

Using the NSF-funded, science-based REU programs as its model, UR USF has been aggressive in partnering with departments and programs to develop and fund summer REUs in other disciplinary and interdisciplinary fields, such as humanities, education and archaeology, as well as in offering year-round REUs. The Office also works to create a supportive research community for all of its REU programs by housing participating students together and organizing workshops and social activities for students and faculty alike.

This Spotlight highlights two of UR USF’s most innovative programs: its Humanities REU, first piloted in 2005, and the Social Aspects of Hurricane REU, piloted in the summer 2006. Both are interdisciplinary programs that combine course work and group training in research skills to prepare cohorts of skilled undergraduate research apprentices.

The Humanities REU

Purpose: The USF Humanities REU is designed to provide an intensive research experience for undergraduates, help the students develop skills necessary to serve as research apprentices to faculty in humanities disciplines, and help them prepare for graduate or professional school and Senior Thesis work. The driving interest is to train a cohort of undergraduate humanities researchers.

Program Structure: The program consists of a summer institute in which students are trained to do meaningful research, and an academic year research placement that culminates in their giving a presentation at USF’s annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, held in the spring. During the summer institute, students take at least two out of three thematically-linked courses during USF’s summer session, engage in communal reading and discussion, and participate in a concluding Symposium. Students who successfully complete the institute are eligible for placement as undergraduate research apprentices with humanities faculty at USF; their placement is accompanied by a stipend of $500 per semester. In addition to presenting their work at the spring Symposium, all apprentices are expected to submit their work for consideration either for presentation at a national conference or for a national undergraduate prize such as the Norton essay competition or the SSEMW Ashgate award.

Course-work: The theme for the first summer institute, in 2005, was "Women and Gender in Europe from the Renaissance to the 20th Century," although the research skills taught were applicable beyond this particular area of research. Students enrolled in one of two established summer courses: "The Italian Renaissance" (HUM 4937/IDH 4000-011) or "The Feminist History of Modern Europe" (WST 3220/IDH 4930-002:). In addition, they all took "Research Methods in Humanities," a course designed specifically for the REU and co-taught by a member of the French department and a university research librarian. As members of the institute, the students were required to complete ONE research paper in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the TWO courses in which they were enrolled and to give a presentation on their work at the REU’s concluding colloquium. Upon successful completion of the summer program, students received a $500 stipend. Five of the seven pilot participants were matched with faculty as research apprentices for the fall.

Dissemination of Results: In addition to working with faculty on faculty projects, several of the students continued to work on their own projects, which had been initiated during the summer. They presented their work at the USF undergraduate research symposium, NCUR and the Austin College Conference on Women and Gender. Two of the students used their initial research as the foundation for successful Honors theses.

The Future of the Humanities REU: UR USF is currently piloting an academic year Humanities REU. All students enrolled in a junior or senior level humanities course were eligible to be nominated for the REU by faculty. Students in the pilot program take a full semester "Humanities Research Methods" course that is designed to acquaint them with research methods and the use of various tools and prepare them for independent work and graduate school and research apprenticeship with a faculty mentor. The preparation includes their learning to use Refworks, the library and world catalogs, and CRL, as well as gaining experience with various databases, special collections, and other specialized sources.

Concurrent with their taking the "Research Methods" course and guided by their faculty sponsors, students first define a topic for their research project. Then, as they begin to pursue the topic, the course teaches them to use the tools while building an extensive and ultimately annotated bibliography. Since one of the goals of the program is to prepare students to do research without placing an undue burden on faculty mentors, the "Research Methods" course is critical in laying the foundation for further work. During the course of the semester, students meet at least twice with their faculty sponsors, who review the bibliography in progress and grade the final bibliography for content. Through the course and their interactions with the faculty, students develop confidence in the research process, while both sides benefit from gradually building a mentoring relationship.

Social Aspects of Hurricanes REU: Preparation, Response and Recovery

Overview: UR USF’s newest interdisciplinary REU program combines research and community service. After seven major hurricanes in two years, projections of intense hurricane activity for the next two decades, and a recurring six-month hurricane season, Florida is, unfortunately, an ideal location for hurricane-related research. This six-week, 7-credit summer REU focuses on social aspects of hurricanes as students and faculty investigate how individuals, communities and institutions prepare for, experience, and recover from hurricanes. Drawing on faculty and mentors from anthropology, sociology, geography, education, social work, and public health, the program is designed to train students in qualitative and quantitative research methods and to provide an intense and substantive research experience examining hurricanes from an interdisciplinary social science perspective. Students are also trained in disaster-related humanitarian intervention skills, including Red Cross certification in shelter management. The academic program is supplemented by field trips to such locations as the NOAA Hurricane Center at MacDill Air Force Base, home of the P3 "Hurricane Hunters," where students see major facilities and learn about their intervention activities.

The Social Aspects of Hurricanes REU is distinguished by its emphasis on the symbiosis of research and community service. Students not only receive training in research methods, but they also learn about disaster management and intervention skills. The expectation is that the research they undertake following the summer REU will build on these foundations and result in culturally and socially responsive, evidence-based approaches to the problems the Tampa area is facing. The integral educational components of the program will aid them in thinking critically about the social and behavioral aspects of hurricane disasters, including mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. In addition, the knowledge base the students develop will augment opportunities for both basic and applied research in many geographic areas prone to hurricane activity, including communities from which USF students are drawn.

The Students: Participants in the REU were rising juniors or seniors in social science majors, such as environmental sciences, sociology, and geography, although the group also included one biomedical sciences and one international studies major. All social science majors were able to use the research methods course either for credit toward their major or as a cognate.

The Program: The program follows UR USF’s general summer REU structure, providing an initial, intense period of training through course work and research skill practice, thus preparing students to be matched with faculty as research apprentices or for thesis work during the subsequent academic year. Students take three courses: “Hurricane Research Methods” (3 credits), “Hurricane Humanitarian and Social Interventions” (3 credits), and “Hurricane Research Seminar” (1 credit). Although they are required to pay tuition, upon completion of the program, they receive a $500 stipend. Following the summer program, for every semester they engage in research with faculty mentors, they will receive an additional $500 scholarship.

Hurricane Research Methods: The primary purpose of this course is to familiarize students with quantitative and qualitative tools and methods that can be used to study the impact hurricanes have on individuals, groups, communities, and geographic areas (e.g. neighborhoods, towns). Students learn to become critical consumers and designers of social research and to apply basic methods to describe and infer relationships. Upon completing the course, students are expected to have a basic understanding of research principles, be able to identify components of the research enterprise, and be able to manipulate basic data using a statistical software package. The course, co-taught by faculty in social work and anthropology, met for one week, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily, during the second week of the REU; on the final Friday afternoon, all the students gave a presentations.

Hurricane Research Methods Syllabus

Humanitarian and Social Interventions: Research in hurricane preparedness, response and recovery requires knowledge of disaster management infrastructure and procedures, understanding of the social context of hurricane survivors, and skills in humanitarian and social intervention. This course is designed to educate students about critical issues and train them in such areas as disaster management services, and infrastructure, behavioral first aid and stress management specialized for disasters, and cultural competence and compassion during disaster response. Some of the training is provided by the American Red Cross and FEMA. With skills obtained in the course, students will be able to assist the USF and local communities develop informed plans and strategies. During the pilot REU, the course met for one full day every week, and had three additional on-site training field trips to the National Weather Service, the Emergency Operations Center of Hillsborough County, and the NOAA Hurricane Center.

Hurricane Humanitarian and Social Interventions Syllabus

Hurricane Research Seminar: This seminar, organized and run by Dr. Margarethe Kusenbach, Assistant Professor of Sociology, consists of weekly presentations on hurricane-related research given by rotating USF faculty at working lunch meetings. The presentations are followed by a panel discussion in which professional first responders from search and rescue, incident command, law enforcement, health, and mental health respond to the speaker In preparation for the seminar, students are required to read an article or chapter on the week’s subject and to write a two-page response.

The Research Projects: The students are building on their summer coursework during the academic year by conducting hurricane-related research with faculty mentors. Four students have determined their research topics:

• An investigation of local communities and social activities in a variety of mobile home parks, and how residents prepare for (and cope with) natural disasters (Mentor: Maggie Kusenbach , Professor of Sociology)
• The environmental factors influencing the interannual variation of hurricane numbers in the Northeast Pacific with comparison to those in the Atlantic (Mentor: Jennifer Collins, Professor of Geography)
• Impact of hurricanes and interventions on children’s academics, mental health, and behavior: How children’s academic performance is affected by hurricanes and the extent to which disaster behavioral health interventions improve children’s academic performance after hurricanes (Mentor: Jennifer Baggerly, Professor of Counselor Education and Public Health)
• Evaluating the impact and effectiveness of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) in Tampa and Hillsborough County (Mentor: Robin Ersing, Professor of Social Work)

• Collecting information on USF's current measures to aid students in evacuation and shelter and other assistance available to them during a threatening hurricane and publishing the information on USF’s weather center web page (Mentor: Jennifer Collins, Professor of Geography)
• Researching and writing a brochure about USF’s resources for hurricane preparedness (Mentor: Judy Jetson, USF Collaborative)

Community Service: USF is interested in teaching students to conduct transformative research –- that is, research designed to change practice. The research projects derived from this REU all have the potential to directly benefit both USF’s west central Florida community and other hurricane-affected areas by providing a knowledge base that will improve understanding of potential impacts and best practices and lead to evidence-based approaches and strategies. Since the summer program, several students have given talks on preparedness at local summer programs and elementary schools. They will be expected to give presentations on their academic year research at USF’s Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, as well as at local, state and national events, including the Florida Governor’s Hurricane Conference and the National Hurricane Conference.

The Future of USF’s Hurricane REU: Given the success of the pilot program, USF plans to expand the Hurricane REU for next summer and beyond. UR USF is applying for external funding to be able to include non-USF students from other hurricane-impacted areas, to expand the program to ten weeks so that the mentored research experience can be a more integral feature of the summer program, and to offer stipends that will enable students to devote themselves full time to the REU.

For more information
Visit the website at www.ur.usf.edu or email Dr. Naomi Yavneh at yavneh@honors.usf.edu.

Ohio State University Victoria Getis, Interim Director for the Digital Union Susan E. Metros, Professor of Design Technology, Deputy Chief Information Officer, and Executive Director for eLearning

Research on Research: Undergraduate Student-Faculty ePartnerships

Program Overview
Research on Research: Undergraduate Student-Faculty ePartnerships is an innovative, interdisciplinary program that facilitates paired work by faculty and undergraduate students on a research project. The program fosters a strong mentoring relationship between the faculty member and the student. The technology also supports instruction in a variety of topics useful in student engagement in learning: project management, planning, community building, and presentation and writing skills. The program was conceived and is administered by Ohio State’s instructional technology support unit, Technology Enhanced Learning and Research (TELR).

In Research on Research, full-time undergraduate students are financially supported to collaborate with faculty members during the 10-week summer term in developing a publicly accessible, multimedia-rich, digital portfolio chronicling the research effort. Flexibility is key; student projects range from observing the faculty mentor’s research to working on a question developed by their faculty partner to developing their own original research program. These multimedia portfolios are referenced in the University’s Knowledge Bank and are accessible through a dynamic Web site that describes the program and documents the research http://digitalunion.osu.edu/r2.

During the summer quarter, faculty interact with their student partners in formal and informal settings, guide the research experience, and participate in designing the research portfolio. Students work on research under their faculty partner’s guidance, attend workshops to learn multimedia skills, participate in seminars to discuss their specific research projects as well as research in general, and design and build the research portfolio. The summer program is initiated and interspersed with a series of community-building social events and culminates in a showcase event in which participants demonstrate their research and related portfolios to a campus and public audience.

Research on Research has a paired application process and an interdisciplinary selection committee. Using an online application process, students and faculty members form partnerships and apply to the program together. The partnerships can include multiple faculty members and can be interdisciplinary. The selection process is based on the following criteria:

• Is the partnership logical—do the applicants have an ongoing relationship and share a vision of the importance of the research to be undertaken?
• Will the project help the student in his or her educational goals?
• Will the project produce multimedia portfolios that will be useful to the faculty member and the university?
• Is the student willing to learn technology? (The review team considers technology skill, although it is not used as a selection criterion.)

The program supports 10 to 12 project teams per year from across the university. In the three years since its establishment, 32 departments have been represented by either faculty or student participation. Project proposals have ranged from studying economic market bubbles to developing distribution plans for e-groceries and from researching the molecular mechanisms of diabetes to chronicling the lives of Japanese-Americans held in internment camps during World War II.

Program Impact
While many universities have undergraduate research programs, in most cases faculty members participate without reward. The Ohio State program gives the faculty member an item of real value and use —- the multimedia e-portfolio. The student-produced portfolio is dynamic; faculty can edit it and upload new content. Faculty use the portfolios to recruit students, inform peers of research progress, and present highlights of their work to current and future granting agencies. Faculty can also use the portfolio as a teaching resource at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

The program provides students at a large university with a personalized experience. Through the collaboration they form a one-on-one relationship with a faculty member and gain their first "real" insight into the world of academia. While students self-select into the applicant pool, the review team does not target honors or special students, thus rewarding initiative rather than status. Student evaluations indicate that the students develop greater understanding of what it is faculty do, consider attending graduate school, and even entertain the possibility of becoming a faculty member. Furthermore, the students have commented that Research on Research revealed to them a new facet of learning that was both exciting and authentic.

Finally, the institution benefits from the program and its resulting research portfolio, in that the portfolio provides an easy way to spotlight innovative faculty and student work across the campus. The institution’s public relations office can use products that emerge from the program for promotional purposes and as a marketing tool. The portfolios also can serve as an advising tool for current students and as a recruitment tool for new undergraduate and graduate students and faculty.

For more information
Contact Victoria Getis, getis.1@osu.edu, or Susan E. Metros, metros.1@osu.edu

References
Getis, V., Gynn, C., Metros, S.E. (2006). "New Partnerships: Engaging Undergraduates in Research Though Technology," ECAR Research Bulletin (Boulder, CO: EDUCAUSE), 1

Washington University in St. Louis: Gary Hochberg, Associate Dean for the Undergraduate Program, John M. Olin School of Business

Undergraduate Research in the Olin School of Business

Although faculty in contemporary business schools have become increasingly research-oriented during the past several decades, it is relatively uncommon for undergraduate business students to engage in significant research projects in their business course work. Students in such undergraduate professional programs may think to themselves: I want to find a job, not to become an academic. In the Olin School of Business at Washington University, we have found that having students engage in research activities is perhaps the most effective way of achieving the development of students' analytical and critical thinking capabilities, enabling them to think more creatively and be more innovative. Two of Olin’s research-oriented programs best illustrate the value of students’ participation in research activities.

The International Internship Program is a study abroad experience for second-semester juniors that combines academic work with hands-on work experience. This program, which is offered in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom at the present time, requires that students write a significant original research paper under the guidance of a faculty member in conjunction with a full-time internship placement. Students are responsible for developing their research topic, for the selection and analysis of data (where this is applicable,) and for the conduct of a literature review that serves to ‘position’ their research in the context of relevant discussions in their chosen area. At the end of the program, students present their research results to a panel that includes faculty, internship supervisors, and fellow internship program students.

Students wishing to participate in Olin’s International Internship Programs submit applications to the undergraduate programs office. Applications require not only information about the students’ academic background, but also c.v.’s that indicate career interest and any previous work experience that may be relevant to determining an appropriate internship placement for the student abroad. Although the goal is to enable students to participate in study abroad programs of their own choosing, the International Internship Programs are quite demanding and participation is not automatic.

Each International Internship Program begins with intensive academic preparation in the semester prior to departing for the study abroad location; and there is intensive academic preparation that occurs in the study abroad destination as well. The fall semester preparation includes instruction in research methods that is applicable to all students regardless of their area of interest or their intended International Internship location.

Academic preparation in the internship location varies according to the country in which the student will live, study, and work. In London, which is by far the largest of the three locations, students spend their first month in the UK learning about the UK and European business environment, economic and political issues of the European Union as they impact on business activity, and the like. In France and Germany, the first month is devoted to intensive study in Commercial French or German, as the internship work will be carried out in the language of the country.

A few specific examples will serve to indicate the relationship between the students’ research projects and the work of their internship placements, and the extent to which the research projects are ‘international’ in nature. In some instances, the connection is very close indeed, while in others the research project may deal with issues that lie in the background of the hands-on work the student is doing in his/her placement.

On one occasion in our International Internship Program in London, a student worked for a firm in the financial services sector that did research on the futures markets in various metals. This student’s research project – and his day-in, day-out work in his internship – was to contribute to the firm’s annual research report on the futures market in silver. This is quite technical, analytical work; and the research project and the student’s daily responsibilities dovetailed together very closely.

Another Olin student worked in Germany for a major investment firm, researching the relative risk characteristics of the American NASDAQ market with those of an emerging new securities market being headquartered in Frankfurt. His report was utilized by his internship supervisors in advising that bank’s clients about how to manage risk in investing in this new securities exchange. Here again, the work was quite technical; and the student’s daily work responsibilities and his research project were very closely related.

Finally, yet another student participating in Olin’s International Internship Program in Germany interned with a major German manufacturing firm in its strategic planning department, but wrote his research project on the problems of ‘knowledge management’ in large industrial corporations: Essentially, how do very large organizations capture and retain the knowledge created by employees when large numbers of workers join and leave the company on an on-going basis. This is a very important topic for large companies. Its relationship to the student’s day-to-day responsibilities, however, was less immediate than in the other two examples above.

The Senior Honors Seminar provides an opportunity for Olin’s best undergraduates to engage in a year-long seminar that is co-taught by several members of our faculty drawn from different disciplines. In the first semester of the seminar, students will have the experience of engaging in faculty-motivated discussion of cutting-edge research literature drawn from leading professional journals. A central theme to the materials presented by the faculty is innovation and creativity, which is at the heart of how businesses today achieve success.

At the end of the first term and throughout the second, students will form into groups to research topics of their own choosing, drawing upon the knowledge and research skills they will have acquired during the first semester. The results of these student research projects will be presented at the end of the spring semester in a symposium sponsored by the Olin School’s Center for Research in Economics and Strategy (CRES.)

While the existence of a Senior Honors Seminar for a small number of the very best seniors in Olin’s undergraduate program is not new (such a seminar has existed since 1990), this particular structure to the seminar, with its emphasis on group research projects, will be implemented for the first time in the 2006-07 academic year. Thus, we cannot point to specific examples of student projects as it was possible to do in describing the International Internship experiences above. It is possible, however, to illustrate the kinds of research materials and topics faculty intend to discuss with the Honors Seminar students in their portions of the program. See the links below for examples of these materials.

• Honors in Finance Seminar
  
• Honors in Organizational Behavior Seminar
  
• Honors in Economics Seminar
  
• Honors in Entrepreneurship Seminar
  

It is not our expectation that students who engage in such research-driven activities will go on to academic research careers, although this occasionally happens; rather, our experience has been that students who engage in this kind of intensive research-related activity as part of their undergraduate studies are better prepared for the job market and the early stages of their careers than are their peers who did not take advantage of these learning opportunities. They are better able to identify and analyze problems, and to find creative solutions, than are students who have not challenged themselves to the same extent. Thus, engaging in academic research in an undergraduate business program may be the best way of preparing for a long and successful professional career.

For more information
Contact Gary Hochberg at hochberg@wustl.edu or visit https://www.olin.wustl.edu/bsba/srv/