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The Council on Undergraduate Research promotes
and assists development of collaborative student/faculty
research at primarily undergraduate colleges and
universities. Most science educators today accept such research
as a critical component of an undergraduate science
education. Research provides the primary opportunity for students
to engage in the practice of science. We can draw an
analogy between sports training and the education of young
scientists. We cannot train future tennis players exclusively
by providing them with lectures on tennis and
supervising them performing skill-development drills.
To become skilled at their game, tennis players
must engage in active competition. Similarly, young
scientists must engage in the enterprise that affords our
understanding of the physical universe. Only by
participating in scientific investigation can
students understand the nature of science and become scientists.
Despite broad implementation of the
collaborative studentfaculty research model,
it is clear that all science educators do not understand the term "undergraduate
research" in the same way. This range of understanding was
addressed specifically last spring at the CUR April Dialogue. In a
new approach to fostering active discussion among
participants, "special dialogue sessions" were held, that addressed a
variety of important questions including "What constitutes
undergraduate research?" Participants agreed that
undergraduate research must be an original investigation that
the student engages in for a significant period of time. Many
felt that the nature of undergraduate research varies from
discipline to discipline, even within subdisciplines.
In traditional undergraduate research, a student
collaborates with a faculty mentor on an ongoing
long-term project, usually initiated by the faculty member. The
project is expected to be funded by traditional external
funding agencies and to result in publication in a peer-reviewed
scientific journal. Participants in the dialogue session
raised questions with regard to what extent other types of
intense investigative experiences might constitute
undergraduate research. Are different types of research experiences
appropriate for different students? How do administrators
and colleagues view different types of undergraduate
research? Is there a minimum period of time required for original,
creative work? What role can applied investigative
projects play in a student's education? Is applied research still
research? Are there advantages to projects initiated by
students rather than projects initiated by faculty? Are some
valuable projects best considered undergraduate scholarship
rather than undergraduate research?
After considerable discussion of these and other
questions, the group in the session I attended arrived at the
following definition of undergraduate research:
Undergraduate research is an inquiry or
investigation conducted by an undergraduate that makes an
original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline.
Tom Wenzel, CUR president and Bates College
chemistry professor was the facilitator for this session. He
discussed this question and the special dialogue session in
a recent President's column of the CUR
Quarterly (1).
He declares that this definition "allows
disciplinary flexibility by not forcing scholarship into one model.
It makes no judgment on the relative value of teacher-
or student-initiated work and allows for studentfaculty
and studentstudent collaborations." He also comments
that this definition "sets a high standard, since it maintains
that scholarship must be original, because contributing to a discipline implies dissemination among the relevant
community through established means and that others in the
discipline value the result, and because intellectual and
creative activities are forms of engagement that draw on the
most advanced thinking and reasoning skills." In the same
column, Tom strongly encourages undergraduate science faculty
to aggressively seek external funding for support of
studentfaculty collaborative research.
Whatever the nature of our individual
undergraduate research programs, undergraduate research affords
students an understanding of the scientific enterprise
unrivaled by any other aspect of the curriculum. In addition
and equally important, undergraduate research should be
fun and engaging, enabling students to acquire commitment
to and ownership of their individual projects. CUR wants
to assist faculty members and departments in starting
and maintaining strong undergraduate research programs.
The popular booklet How to Develop an Undergraduate
Research Program is available from the CUR National Office. It
includes advice on selection of research projects, selection
of students, solicitation of support from the
administration and colleagues, and the management of an
undergraduate research group. There are extensive appendices
discussing the art of proposal writing, hints on the preparation of
posters, and sources of funding.
Contact the CUR National Office, located at 734
15th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20005, or check the CUR
Web site <http://www.cur.org>. The Chemistry Division of
CUR has a Mentor Network designed to help individuals and
departments either begin or strengthen their
undergraduate research programs. For more information about the
Mentor Network or other CUR Chemistry Division activities
contact: Chemistry Division Chair, Nancy Mills, Department
of Chemistry, Trinity University, 715 Stadium Drive,
San Antonio, TX 78212; email:
nmills@trinity.edu.
Literature Cited
1. Wenzel, T. CUR Q. 1997, 17, 163.
CUR Names New National Executive Officer and Moves National Office
to Washington, DC
The Council on Undergraduate Research has
appointed Elaine Hoagland to the position of
National Executive Officer effective October 1, 1997.
Hoagland received her bachelor's degree in Zoology from
Pomona College and her Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard
University. For the past ten years she has been
Executive Director of the Association of Systematic
Collections, a nonprofit organization representing North
American museums, botanical gardens, and colleges and
universities with natural history collections.
Effective December 1, 1997, CUR's new address will be
734 15th Street, NW, Suite 550, Washington, DC 20005.
The move to Washington is expected to help CUR
increase contacts with federal agencies and to participate in
the national dialogue on science and science education.
Two Views of Undergraduate Research
Gordon Shaw, Skidmore College undergraduate works with
his collaborative research mentor, Judy Halstead, on an
investigation of the chemical kinetics of plasma dry etching of titanium.
This project has been funded by Research Corporation and the
American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund.
Jessica Edwards, Skidmore College '98, measures
turbidity, dissolved oxygen as a function of depth and several other
water chemistry parameters as part of her investigation
of Loughberry Lake, the drinking water supply for
Saratoga Springs. In the summer of 1997, her work was supported
by the Skidmore College Student-Faculty Collaborative
Research Program. Currently, Jessica's work is being supervised by
both Judy Halstead and Roger W. Armstrong, a faculty member
at nearby Russell Sage College. Roger's work has been
funded by the Rensselaer County Environmental Management
Council and various local lake associations.
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