Grinnell College April '99 Dialogue

Talk Points from James E. Swartz (swartz@grinnell.edu), GC Principal Investigator, Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College

Planned assessment project on models of undergraduate science research

What model or models of undergraduate research are employed by the science departments of an institution?
Are the models applicable across disciplines?
Do these models apply to interdisciplinary work?

What is the structure of the undergraduate research experience?
Who originates the idea for the research?
What tasks are required of the student researcher?
How much time is allocated to the project by the student? by the faculty mentor?

What sorts of students participate in research opportunities?
What prior experience does the student bring to the task?
What motivation does the student bring to the task?
What is the student's expectation about the research experience?

What do students learn?
What does the student learn about the research enterprise?
What is the sequence of events in student learning; what are the moments of greatest difficulty and reward?
What role does communication of the project play in learning?
What are the motivational outcomes; would the student do more research; does the student have aspirations in the discipline beyond the undergraduate experience?

The shape of the plan to date

Student research experiences from all science departments are included.
Biology
Chemistry
Mathematics and Computer Science
Physics
Psychology

Research to be conducted by a team:
Director of Institutional Research
Professor of Psychology and former coordinator of college assessment plan
Four undergraduate researchers

Research will conjoin student and faculty experiences.

Research will focus on summer independent projects for 1999.

Preparation includes:
Interviews of faculty
Interviews of students
Participant-observer work in which students demonstrate their work to our student researchers
Student and faculty evaluation of research outcomes
Follow up after summer

Possible Elaborations
Connections of assessment efforts to other institutions, particularly AIRE and RAIRE
Elaborations beyond Sciences to include other disciplines; institutional emphasis on developing capstone opportunities for all students
Extension of teaching-postdoctoral model to disciplines in humanities and social studies

posted on April 29, 1999

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