More and more these days, universities are
offering opportunities for undergrads to get
involved in real research activities.
We’ll talk about that—and what undergraduate
research looks like at U-N-C Pembroke.
It’s “Academe Today.”
[MUSIC]
Thanks for tuning in.
I’m Jamie Litty, the Director of Broadcasting
here at U-N-C-P.
With me today to talk about the trends in
undergraduate research, is Dr. Ryan Anderson,
a history professor at U-N-C-P who is also
head of the Undergraduate Research & Creativity
Center here…and Mr. Jesse Rouse, who teaches
in the Department of Geology and Geography…and
works closely with students in hands-on research
activities.
Thanks for joining me.
Thanks for having us.
Appreciate it.
Ryan, we're going to start with you because
I want to ask you, what do we mean these days
because college classes always have had research
papers or
something like that but
really we're talking about a more concerted
effort to get students
involved, right?
Right, yeah, you know
undergraduate research um, you can probably
define as a
high-impact experience where
it gives students a chance to apply their
disciplinary knowledge as they develop it.
So you know traditionally I think in a lot
of disciplines--whether it's humanities or
art--
or social sciences or hard sciences, you know
students develop first sort of
you know content knowledge early in a major
and then they had some sort of capstone
project near the end.
So in History it was very traditional to have
a senior
thesis-type option.
you know based on an old liberal arts model.
Today there's a lot more effort to scaffold
that
work, so we work a lot harder at teaching
students
starting really on a sophomore level sometimes,
sometimes really on a freshman level
you know how to think as investigators in
their disciplines.
So building some real kind of hands-on experience
early in the career
of an undergraduate so that when they get
to the junior/senior level they're
ready to do more intense research activities
rather than just sort of one culminating activity.
We tend to see this done in two models.
One model is an old-school apprenticeship
model.
Something like PURC supports through our student
scholarships, or through student travel funds
or through
summer research experiences ==where a student
is partnered with a faculty member
but not working for course credit.
Y'know working on extra curricular research
or creativity
in some way.
So: an intense experience for one on one mentorship
with the faculty expert
for a period of time.
Another model that's getting a lot more traction
I think
and a lot more attention, particularly at
state universities
is what we call "CURE" based: Curriculum based
Undergraduate Research Experience.
So emphasizing how students are learning these
disciplinary research
and scholarly and creative techniques.
And getting course credit for it from early
on.--early part of their career.
So one model might have been the undergrad
student working in the professor's lab
on his or her project, sort of like what would
have been taken up by grad students
before, right?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
And I think that particularly at smaller schools
and medium size schools this has become popular
because it gives faculty members a chance
to get students into a lab situation.
Right?
To get that kind of experience.
And not only to contribute to the faculty
member's work, but also to develop their own
research agendas.
And i think that's a differnet model in a
lot of ways, that's somthing that's relatively
new in the last i say new talking as a historian
you kow in the last 25 years.
So i think that there's a lot more emphasis
on having students explore on their own.
Right so yeah we'll often see students here
on campus working in a lab with Dr. Lisa Kelly,
or Dr Conner Sandefur or Dr. Maria Santiseban
uh you know even a Ben Bahr, but those students
are contributing to the lab's work but they're
also pursuing their own work.
And that gives them some really great opportunities.
We see these students as sophomores and juniors
getting this early experience and it translates
into internships, for instance.
during the summer.
so that these people are getting work that
allows them to be quite competitive on the
grad school market, and also in the post doc
market and for getting jobs afterwards.
You mentioned Dr Ben Bahr and many of us know
he does Alzheimer's research um but you mentioned
a few other biologists What might be an activity
or project an undergrad would work on with
them?
A project that pops in my mind is an ongoing
project that we funded a couple of different
times students working with Dr. Roe, a biology
does work with box turtles.
And sort of trying to map the effect of controlled
burns and what that has on their migratory
patterns.
Their lifespan and that sort of thing.
So over several years, we've had multiple
students who got funding to spend parts of
summer with him out in Weymouth Woods.
up in Moore County tagging turtles with basically
GPS devices and then mapping them out.
So that's a cool project because the faculty
member is getting data that they use, the
student is getting to pursue their own discrete
project . We've also seen this translate into
really great service outreach. for the university
as well.
where you know one summer we had a student
who was bascially ran a turlte camp.
with kids he brought in elementary age school
kids to track the turtles kids found the turtles
using the GPS stuff it helped create the maps,
so you get this experience where the student
is acting as a mentor then as well.
getting to sort of pass along this kind of
learning and passion for science in this case,
to elementary school age kids.
Maybe they develop and maybe they end up here
in a couple of years.
doing some work.
Alright, you mentioned maps, so I'm going
to have to ask Jesse some questions.
What does undergraduate research look like
in your field or your department in particular?
The Dept of Geology and Geography we have
a few different things going on of course
they're focusing on the earth, and how we
can interact in that way so we can have faculty
that have projects going with the county,
going out and um measuring groundwater levels,
we have faculty who are working on the next
ways, the best ways, for pedagogy to be presented
to students.
So we have students working with faculty to
help understand how to teach students.
And of course we have those who are mapping.
So whether we're talking about people we have
a lot of students who are doing the new geospatial
technologies certificate which is very much
research focused, and culminates in a one
credit hour capstone experience with research
where they have to go out and do a real world
research project, um , to just, in class type
of presentation and work for mapping.
So it's kind of a broad range of in our department.
And we work with a lot of other disciplines
so we have people who are from History that
are coming in and doing mapping, we have people
from Criminal Justice who are coming in and
doing these things, so it brings in a lot
of hands on experience.
And what about you in particular?
How have you integrated undergraduate research
actvities either into a particular course
or into your scholarly pursuits?
So I've been fortunate to have PURC students
working with me, we have RISE students, who
come and help us to do certain types of things,
even though their mentor is someone else,
um we have HAWK assistants that are working
with us, so there's a lot of students who
are able to take advantage of different opportunities
across campus um to be able to get their fingers
into this.
Now for my classes, again, the geospatial
technologies makes a great example so we have
a few different one hour classes coming up
this semester in the second half of the semester
is ground penetrating radar where students
have to actually take the device go out um
basically look like they're mowing grass for
a little while
Right, it looks like a big lawnmower or Segway
type thing, right? and they're emitting radar
into the ground.
Umhmm and so all it's doing is bouncing back
off of what's in the subsurface and they've
got to go through with the software and sit
down with that understand what's going on
with the software so they can make interpretations.
Um about what's going on below the surface.
And while it's not something that a lot of
companies use, it's something that you know
gives them experience with this type of software
even if they won't be using it in their jobs
in the future.
You mentioned HAWK assistantships, which is
a kind of scholarship or financial aid, um
what other incentives are there that UNCP
can offer to undergrads to kind of grease
the wheel a little bit, is that the right
word?
Sure, sure.
Well, uh you know we routinely give two primary
awards through the PURC center.
And these are competitive awards uh that we
fund perhaps uh you know 20 - 24 of these
a year.
The first is what we call SSS award and that
gives five hundred dollars to a student to
pursue short term mentored research.
So you don't, say a student wants to do refine
their ability to produce prints, an art student.
You know we can give them five hundred dollars
to work with somebody like Prof. Sanderson,
in the Art Dept buy supplies that they need
to build the print making device, to buy the
ink, et cetera et cetera.
Uh and the other award we give is student
travel funding and so students who have already
produced some sort of project, and they need
to travel and present the research at a conference.
We've had students do regional conferences,
national conferences, we've even had students
travel internationally.
uh, on, using some of these funds.
coupled with other funding.
to present research and get that sort of exposure
in their field.
Um a third fund, and this is a brand new offering,
that we've got up, and it kind of folds into
our effort to introduce students to "UR" earlier
in their career is the Charles Humphrey travel
award.
Dr. Humphrey was a 1965 graduate of UNCP,
had a very long career with the Centers for
Disease Control.
And something he had a passion for was mentoring
junior researchers as they came on board.
And so he would come to the PURC symposium
and uh and visit that uh we had a conversation
about ways in which he could help and I said
you know really we've got the money to get
students in their labs for two years we need
to funnel broader students into research activities
earlier and you know he suggested that perhaps
he could give money to just send some students
to a conference.
Not to present research but just to travel
with the faculty mentor and see what it was
like to be at a conference.
So our Humphrey travel award starting this
year will give relatively new students the
opportunity to travel to a conference and
just see what happens in their field.
maybe spark an interest and get familiar with
that process.
So those are the primary awards that we give.
Um we are also uh going to be participating
again this year in a system-wide grant encouraging
faculty members to teach more CURs.
So that would be the UNC system providing
some funds.
Correct.
and that goes to faculty members.
So in an effort to make sure that uh we are
teaching more scaffolded research experiences,
from first year on through the fourth year,
the system is investing in incentivizing teaching
those types of courses to their faculty members.
It's interesting you mentioned that the UNC
system dollars are for the faculty member,
and your donor gave money for travel for students.
Because correct me if I'm wrong, but travel
dollars for students is very dicey--the state
doesn't provide money, right?
Well, the state will provide money, that's
actually--our money that goes for STFs, does
come from our state dollars.
But we want that money to focus on, on research
that has already had a product.
Right.
You know if we're funding people who have
a product, then we have a better idea of what's
actually getting done.
And uh the state money tends to depend on
results.
measurable results.So that's why it's so important
that we're getting these private funds, from
somebody like Dr. Humphrey, who is going to
help us you know take money that we couldn't
otherwise give to students who haven't quite
gotten results yet or products.
We also do get support I should point out
from uh what was Duke Energy uh in terms of
uh grants that go toward the PURC symposium.
every year.
That funding uh helps provide for the keynote
speaker, it helps pay for the printing of
the posters that get done up in Geology and
Geography lab, it helps put on that event
every year.
So undergraduate research is expensive to
maintain.
And it's necessary that we use a blend of
both state and private funds to do that.
I think that's actually one of the things
that undergraduate research can do well for
the university.
It produces alumni who have a vested interest
in
