From the classroom to the lab: How faculty can extend curriculum oriented research experiences to publish with undergraduates

Abstract

Faculty members who teach at liberal arts colleges or regional master's universities may face unique challenges to conducting and publishing meaningful research. Compared with doctorate-granting R1 or R2 institutions, these places of higher learning often require heavier teaching loads (e.g., 3-3 or 4-4) and provide fewer research resources, such as access to graduate students, sizable lab spaces and start-up funds, and large subject pools. Yet, we believe that these potential obstacles can be overcome by having an undergraduate curriculum that cultivates foundational research skills and committed faculty mentorship that can further develop these proficiencies through immersive and collaborative lab groups. Here, we take a dual-perspective approach by first summarizing the overarching goals of these pedagogical practices (SM), and then providing a former student's (LM) insight on the academic impact of such research experiences.