Getting students engaged in research is one of the ways we can make their learning experiences more tangible and more profound. In today’s episode, Dr. Bethany Usher joins us to talk about what happens when we turn students into scholars.

Podcast notes

Guest: Dr. Bethany M. Usher

Challenges of getting student research to work

Recognizing that research can happen in any discipline
Getting faculty to recognize that students can make a contribution
Helping students see that research is something they can do
Setting expectations for students

Examples of this kind of research

Rebecca Nelson (now a grad student at University of Connecticut) textile exhibit; band of knitted heads

Discovered a new knotting technique and how the piece had been repaired along the way
Currently living in Guatemala, studying textile production
Rebecca’s blog

Student did research on a skeleton population and was the winner of the student researcher award at Mason

Authentic research

When the faculty member and the student don’t know the answer when they begin

Other guidance

Determine where to place the research in the curriculum
Continuum between classroom-based research and individual research
Both challenges and benefits to getting classroom-based research to occur
Changwoo Ahn’s Wetlands Ecology class
Council on Undergraduate Research – national organization that publishes a quarterly journal with lots of resources of what works in different environments
Set out a protocol for what you expect a student to be able to do
Rubric on their website on research expectations

Recommendations

7 Tips to Beautiful PowerPoint: Visual Slide Show to inspire us to simplify our presentations (Bonni)
National Conference on Undergraduate Research; have your students attend and present at it (Bethany)
Engaging Ideas by John C. Bean (Bethany)

Closing credits

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Teaching through student research

Teaching in Higher Ed