Making Undergraduate Research Work

First, note the many Research Papers on REU Sites page where you could read what others have done.

The following are notes from REU PI Meeting 2011.

Please contribute to this page!

Different Ideas of Success

People have different ideas of success in undergraduate research. Broadly, the themes are:

Research oriented, e.g.,
- Publications with interns as authors
- Publications with interns acknowledged
- Attendance / presentation of work at an undergraduate research conference
Learning Outcomes oriented, e.g., did the student learn to:
- Present research orally?
- Write academically?
- Do group research work?
- Do interdisciplinary work?
Student-centered, e.g. did the student:
- Learn something?
- Feel like he/she accomplished something?
- Later attend grad school?

Not as good:

Interns assigned just to do data collection. Better: they create a tool to do data collection
Interns just told what to do; they don't get big picture about professor's research problem.
Too much learning curve required as background information; some is ok, but *DOING* is important early, not just reading.
Have them write a big research paper at the end (or worse, after they leave). Better: do sections of the paper along the way.
Have students try to get IRB approvals (if needed) and gather data within 10 weeks. Better: Do a more general one ahead of time.

Better:

Interns have clear understanding of the big picture and the motivation for their project.
Interns get to *DO* something within a couple days, even if they're still doing background research.
Have them write a research paper along the way in sections, e.g. "Do your Intro and research question by week 3; do your lit review by week 4..."
Have a pretty generic IRB already approved ahead of time if you need one

How do you handle different skill levels among students?

How do you handle different disciplinary backgrounds among students?

How to measure what students learned?