enriching the culture of undergraduate research in ......teaching/learning @ king’s •essential...

Enriching the Culture ofUndergraduate Research in

Canadian Chemistry

Peter MahaffyThe King’s University College

Edmonton, [email protected]

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Undergraduate Research: ThePedagogy for the 21st Century?

We believe that undergraduate research is thepedagogy for the 21st century. As an increasing bodyof evidence makes clear, inquiry-based learning,scholarship, and creative accomplishments can and dofoster effective, high levels of student learning at avariety of public and private postsecondary locations,including doctoral and research institutions,comprehensive universities, and liberal arts colleges.

Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) Joint Statement of Principles, 2005

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Council on Undergraduate ResearchAdvocate a pedagogy and academic outlook that:

• Combines teaching and research, two historic polesof a professional dichotomy, into one integratedpedagogy and system of performance. Inundergraduate research, teaching and scholarshipbecome parts of one simultaneous, overlapping,shared process.

• Replaces traditional archetypes of teacher andstudent with a collaborative investigative model,one using research done with a mentor or donejointly by students and teachers--a new visionportending a major shift in how scholarship in theacademy is practiced in a broad range ofdisciplines.

• Replaces competitive modes of inquiry with onesmore focused on collective and collaborative work,offering an enlivening and exciting new heuristic.

CUR Joint Statement of Principles, 2005

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Council on Undergraduate ResearchAdvocate a pedagogy and academic outlook that:

• Motivates students to learn by doing. With facultymentors, students engage directly in practicing thework of their discipline while they avoid passivelyacquiring knowledge that that discipline has produced.

• Promotes both new research and a student’s analyticaland communicative skills from the student’s first dayswithin the college/university experience.

• Creates internal networks to support thesecollaborative learning efforts. Any campus thatmotivates its students to learn through individual andcollaborative research--and can find ways to supportthese intellectual journeys with the necessary humanand material resources--provides its students with afirst-rate education. CUR Joint Statement of Principles, 2005

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Undergraduate Research• Is undergraduate research

on the map in Canada?• If so, who advocates for its

importance in university,provincial, federalgovernment, and grantingcouncil agendas?

• How can we enrich theculture of undergraduateresearch as Canada movesfurther as a ‘country ofdiscovers and learners’ (S.Fortier, NSERC)?

What’s the role forundergraduate research ingrowing our own graduatestudents?

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Enriching Culture for UndergraduateResearch in Canada

King’s Experience

Who Benefits? New modes of Scholarship

3 Steps Forward

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Creating a Rich Learning Environmentfor Science at King’s

• Create a Community ofActive Learners

• Commit to ExcellentTeaching, Scholarshipand Mentoring

• Teach From and NotJust About Nature

• Show Students ThatSpecialization is NotEnough: Science as aHuman Enterprise

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Creating a Rich Learning EnvironmentHelpful Resources

• Project Kaleidoscope• Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)• Beyond Bio 101 (Howard Hughes Foundation)• Shelia Tobias – Revitalizing Undergraduate

Science: Why Some Things Work and Most Don’t• AUCC “Research Capacity Building”• NSERC HQP Workshops Final Report (2002)

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Building an Active Learning Community

• Teaching Partnerships• 3rd & 4th Year Seminars• Collaborative Scholarship• Building Bridges Outside King's• Peer Support• Student Networking• Facilities and Equipment

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Scholarship of Discovery @ King’s

• First Year investigative team projects• Investigative approach to senior laboratories• Environmental chemistry external

collaborations• Required senior thesis• Summer research opportunities• Two annual research conferences – April and

September• Professional conferences

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Scholarship of Discovery andTeaching/Learning @ King’s

• Essential to focus efforts, work across disciplines,nurture external collaborations, build criticalinfrastructure, provide continuity of support

The King’s Centre for Molecular StructureRESEARCH SOLUTIONS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND SIZES

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CRYSTAL Alberta –King’s University Visualization Projects

• Informed by NSF supported GRC – Visualization• Visualizing the unseen in research and education

– Modeling West Nile Virus vectors– Visualizations to address documented

misconceptions about atmospheric chemistry andglobal climate change

– Modeling charged particles in 3D electric andmagnetic fields.

– 3D Flash Molecular Viewer for Geowall– Grade 5 particulate level models

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Acknowledments

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Outcomes• Graduate and professional schools• Success with CGS• Qualities reported by employers• Participation and presentation at WCUCC• Presentation at other conferences

– CSC– Banff Organic Symposium– IUPAC Congress– Teacher’s Conventions

• Co-publication

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Undergraduate Research:Who Benefits?

• Undergraduate students• Faculty mentors• Graduate and professional schools• Employers• Canadian research and innovation!

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Student Perspective

• Problem solving• Communication skills• Experience of interfaces• Teamwork• Confidence!

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Benefits of Undergrad Research in Sciences

• 76 students at 4 US liberal arts colleges withundergraduate research programs.

• Overwhelmingly positive, 91% indicate gains:– Personal/Professional– Working and thinking like a scientist– Gains in various skills– Clarification/confirmation of career plans, incl

graduate school– Shift in attitude toward learning and working as

researcher– Other benefits

Seymour, et. al. Science Education, 2004

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• Personal/Professional gains– Increased confidence– Establishing relationship with a faculty mentor– Developing professional collegiality with peers


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• Thinking and working like a scientist– Application and knowledge of skills– Knowledge and understanding of science and

research


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• Gains in skills– Communication skills!– Time management– Record keeping– Computer skills– Ability to find, analyze and critique literature


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• Clarification/refinement of career/educationpaths– No evidence of causal effect on graduate school

enrollment– Population under study is already interested in

graduate school before research experience– Clarify choices between disciplinary interests– Clarify whether engaged by research or other

areas of work


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• Enhanced career/graduate school preparation– Professional socialization – it’s ok to contact a

colleague for information/advice

• Changes in attitudes toward learning andworking as a researcher– Pleasure in working independently– Confidence in decision making and communication


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2001 USRA Survey (3,364 respondents)

• Satisfaction is high with the USRA work experience• Students report learning practical techniques and

methods and gain critical management skills• Students report that the supervision and instruction

they received was excellent• Students’ interest in research increased at a critical

period in their career-choice• USRA work experiences had a significant impact on

students’ interest in careers in industry• Students overwhelmingly believe their USRA job

experience will improve their permanent job prospects• A significant number of students plan to stay in

university longer as a result of their USRA jobexperience

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Faculty Perspective

• Staying current• Understanding why we believe what we

believe about science we teach• Work at interfaces with other disciplines• The best teaching and learning happens

one-on-one• “It keeps me alive and passionate about

science”

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Faculty Challenges (esp. at PUIs)

• Resources - human,operational funding, andinfrastructure

• Continuity in researchprograms

• Teaching andadministrativeresponsibilities

• Sustaining productivitythroughout a facultycareer

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Graduate School and EmployerPerspective

• Communication skills• Problem solving• Interdisciplinary experience• Experience with depending on others in

teams• Conversant with ICT• Confidence!

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Three Steps Forward

1. Put Canadian undergraduate research and the roleof PUIs on the map

2. Support symbiosis between the scholarships ofdiscovery and teaching/learning

3. Research solutions come in all shapes and sizes.So should (at least some) support mechanisms for• Undergraduate and graduate research• PUIs and research intensive universities

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Three Steps Forward 1. Put Canadian Undergraduate

Research on the Map

• New map of the role, successes, and best practicesin Canadian undergraduate research. What’s the scope ofundergraduate research – where, how much, by whom?

• Changing roles of post-secondary institutions• Impact of undergraduate research on students, faculty,

graduate and professional schools, and employers. (HQP)• Mechanisms for map-making?

– AUCC– NSERC– CUR (Canadian Affinity Group – Kathy Darvesh)

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Three Steps Forward

2. Symbiotic Scholarship: Discovery/Teaching

• Vocabulary and profile around scholarship ofteaching and learning

• Discovery research groups – parallel teachingand learning groups?

• Collaborations among scientists, educators,students, external partners – CRYSTALexample

• New interdisciplinary researchcommunities, science education,visualization

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Three Steps Forward3. Research Solutions Come in all Shapes and

Sizes – So Should Support Mechanisms

• Undergraduate and graduate research are different.• Research intensive universities and PUIs are

different.• Research in these different contexts is not better

nor worse, but different measures of success.• Why should funding mechanisms be the same?• NSF examples - researchers, infrastructure @ PUIs• Continuity in research support needed• Continuity along faculty career path for excellent

work is needed

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Three Steps Forward3. Research Solutions Come in all Shapes and

Sizes – So Should Support Mechanisms

• Modest suggestions to NSERC and grantingagencies– Review USRA scope and supervision criteria. Research

solutions come in all shapes and sizes…– Intl review of DG – include question: Are we

internationally competitive in supportingundergraduate science learning environments to growour HQP?

– Review of CGS committees – new interdisciplinaryinterfaces between research in science & education

– One time or pilot initiatives are great, but… RCD, CRCchairs, CFI, CRYSTAL?)

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Three Steps ForwardNSERC HQP Workshops – Final Report, 2002

• Participants also emphasized the importance ofbetter promoting the NSE at the undergraduatelevel. A large focus was on increasing funding toundergraduate students for research and appliedstudy. Suggestions included expanding theUndergraduate Student Research Awards program(USRA’s) and offering new funding to supportundergraduate cooperative education andinternship programs. Participants also encouragedNSERC to consider making funding available todevelop and support infrastructure to ensuresufficient lab space to develop interest andcapacity at the undergraduate level.

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Acknowledgments• King’s undergraduate collaborators!• USRA and CRYSTAL programs for support• Brian Martin, co-director King’s CRYSTAL Centre

for Visualization• Hank Bestman, NSERC faculty representative• Kathy Darvesh, CUR Canadian Affinity Group

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ChallengesCelebrate and Reward Differences

Professors in small universities may be just as qualifiedto do research as those in the bigger ones, but theyface special challenges. If their university specializesin undergraduate education, they can't call on graduatestudents to join their research teams. If theiruniversity is far from Canada's major urban centres,there may be few businesses with whom to forgepartnerships. And small universities, no matter howexcellent, simply can't provide the full range ofresearch infrastructure the big universities do.One-time NSERC - RCD competition. 7/34 successful

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Research Capacity Building (AUCC)

• Research capacity assistance should be used to provide start-upfunding for research services, seed funding for researchactivities, to develop collaborative links and partnerships, tofurther integrate education and research, and to developmechanisms to better transfer knowledge and technology intotheir communities.

• Small universities should continue to identify research niches,often multidisciplinary in nature, to encourage contributionsfrom as many scholars as possible, thus building depth in anumber of key areas and thereby enhancing their sustainableresearch capacity.

• Smaller universities should also continue to assist theirresearchers to improve their participation and success rate innational competitions by evaluating past results; by sharing bestpractices for grant application support; and by continuing tosubmit themselves to the same standards of accountability aslarger, research intensive institutions.

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Building an Active Learning Community“Often, the best laboratory experience is one inwhich students pursue their own research underfaculty guidance…. Instead of just showing studentswhat it is like to do science, why not confront themwith real problems and ask them to come up withtheir own solutions? Students presented with such achallenge must develop traits such as curiosity,creativity, and perseverance—the very attributesessential in science. They also hone skills, such asproblem solving and using computers to manipulateequipment, that may get short shrift elsewhere inthe curriculum. Most important, they are moreengaged than in “cookbook” laboratories, enhancingnot only their knowledge of biology but also theirconfidence in themselves."

Beyond Bio 101

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Fractionating Knowledge

Complexity requires specialization in thepursuit of discovery as we deepen ourunderstanding of the modern world and createthe knowledge needed to resolve currentdilemmas and improve the quality of life.In this process, we continually fractionateknowledge, analyzing the pieces in greater andgreater depth. We have trained our 20thcentury professional quite well in this task—it’s a global strength we must sustain— butwhat additional skill will be demanded of 21stcentury leaders?

Joseph Bordogna in PKAL, What Works, Vol. I

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