Research with Undergraduates Slides

1. Working with undergraduate
researchers
Elizabeth Catlos and Kathy Surpless

2. Research with Undergraduates
 What are the benefits of undergraduate research? In
other words, why involve undergraduates in your
research?
 What are the challenges and pitfalls of working with
undergraduates in research?

3. What does undergraduate research look
like?
 Undergraduates work on a piece of their mentor’s
larger research project
 Undergraduates work on projects of their own design
 Undergraduates work on research topics of
peripheral interest to their mentor’s research
 Students at different levels are involved in a
research team
 Students complete research within a class context
 Students complete research as part of a structured
Honors Program or similar

4. Goals for undergraduate research
 Research results contribute to advancing our knowledge
of the discipline and/or result in new scholarly and
creative works
 Students learn ways of the discipline and develop as
researchers; process is as important as outcome
 Enlivens the intellectual climate on campus, stimulates
discussions and collaborations within and across
disciplines, and increases the number of high quality
interactions between students and faculty outside of the
traditional classroom
 Challenges students to pose and answer meaningful
questions, and helps students develop quantitative,
problem-solving, and presentation skills

5. Some resources
 Collaborating with students:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer
/research/students.html#thoughts
 Undergraduate research:
http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/earlycareer
/research/students.html#thoughts
 Advisor, Teacher, Role-Model, Friend: On being a
mentor to students in science and engineering (full
text online):
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5789

6. Your turn…
 Your institution: What is the institutional climate for
undergraduate research at your institution? What
institutional challenges do you face? What questions do
you need to find answers to soon? Who will you ask?
 Your research program: What projects do you have in
which you can involve undergraduates? At what level are
these projects? How will you balance moving your
research forward with undergraduate students’ needs
and goals?
 Your mentoring philosophy: What characterizes a good
undergraduate research mentor? How are the needs of
undergraduate students different from graduate student
needs, and how will you address this?