Where Is This Undergraduate Research Wave Taking Us?

The last two decades have seen a large shift among the faculty of science departments as well as engineering departments, towards engaging undergraduate students in the research endeavor. A number of departments believe that some form of undergraduate-level research should be required of all students within their programs, others merely recommend it. Few exclude it from their curriculum outright. Recently, debate has begun on how early in a student’s curriculum he or she should begin research. There is also considerable discussion as to whether undergraduate research is “real” research, or some exercise that needs to be relegated to an informal second tier of scientific work and inquiry. As far as when a student should start, my experience has taught me that the decision is made on a case-by-case basis. Any research endeavor, whether it involves an undergraduate or a graduate researcher, is essentially an informal contract between a professor and a student. When it comes to undergraduate students, some are more mature than others (as in any group of people). Some are ready to undertake a research project at an earlier point in their college years than others. I have taken the occasional student into my research group as early as the second semester of their freshman year. Such students are always highly motivated, and manage their time well. There are a couple of special considerations, or perhaps I should say duties, on the part of a faculty member when bringing an undergraduate into their research group. The first is to ensure that any project given to the student is one that can be dissected into small enough units that the student can work it into their schedule. Reactions that require constant monitoring over the course of ten hours or more simply aren’t going to be completed by a student who must fit research in among five other classes. The second faculty duty is proper supervision and mentoring. This means different things to different people, but it is fair to say that a new undergraduate probably needs more advice and oversight when in the lab than does a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow. This isn’t just a matter of safety; it’s a matter of teaching all the little techniques and tricks that are never written in books. It’s mentoring that ensures the student learns how to function in the lab, or get their lab “hands.” I have found that arguably the most important aspect of this is the speech I give to any new student. I never fail to point out that in other course and lab work, when a student makes a mistake or in some way fouls a piece of equipment, the natural reaction is to in some way hide what happened. I point out that embarrassing as it may be when something goes wrong, they need to come to me and relate exactly what happened. Only then can we work together to fix what is gone awry. To make this strange pep talk more realistic, I tell a story about a gross error I made as a first year graduate student (no, I emphatically will NOT repeat it here!), how I sheepishly told my advisor, and how the problem was fixed. Knowing that their professor is human seems to lessen my students’ fear when something does go wrong. The third faculty duty towards their undergraduate researchers is ensuring they get some experience presenting the results of their work. A publication in AJUR or another refereed journal may not always be a possibility, depending on how complete a