scholarly journals Integrating Undergraduate Research into Social Science Curriculum: Benefits and Challenges of Two Models

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Crowe ◽  
Austin Boe
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Science Curriculum ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Survey Methods ◽  
Learning Experience ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Community Based Research

Evidence shows that undergraduate research is beneficial to students during their college years and beyond. This study evaluates two models for integrating undergraduate research into the college curriculum: (1) integrating a community-based research project into a social science course and (2) designing a senior seminar course as an undergraduate research experience. Findings show that students benefit from a hands-on research experience that deepens their understanding of both survey methods and social issues. While, students who participated in the community-based research project enjoyed interacting with community members and learning about community concerns, students in the senior seminar research experience ranked all aspects of the research project more favorably than students participating in the community-based research project. We discuss the benefits and challenges of both models as well as the implications of these findings and the steps instructors can take to improve the learning experience of undergraduates in the social sciences.

scholarly journals From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to “Countering Colston”: Slavery and Memory in a Transatlantic Undergraduate Research Project

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Reid-Maroney ◽  
Amy Bell ◽  
Neil Brooks ◽  
Olivette Otele ◽  
Richard White
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Public History ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project ◽  
History And Memory ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Uncle Tom's Cabin ◽  
Student Researchers ◽  
The Uk

AbstractIn 2016–17 and in 2018–19, undergraduate students and faculty at Huron University College in London, Canada, and at Bath Spa University in the UK collaborated on an innovative community-based research project: Phantoms of the Past: Slavery and Resistance, History and Memory in the Atlantic World. Our paper outlines the structure of the project, highlights student research, and argues that the Phantoms undergraduate student researchers helped to create an innovative and important body of work on transatlantic Public History and local commemorative practice.

Engaging Social Science and Humanities Students in Community-Based Research on Nitrogen Oxide Pollution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald. J. Wink ◽  
Lisa Lynn ◽  
Carol Fendt ◽  
Melanie J. Snow ◽  
Ray Muhammad ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Nitrogen Oxide ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Humanities Students

scholarly journals Teaching Computational Social Science Skills to Psychology Students: An Undergraduate Research Lab Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Brian A. Eiler ◽  
◽  
Patrick C. Doyle ◽  
Rosemary L. Al-Kire ◽  
Heidi A. Wayment ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Data Science ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Psychology Students ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Open Science ◽  
Computational Social Science ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Science Practices

This article provides a case study of a student-focused research experience that introduced basic data science skills and their utility for psychological research, providing practical learning experiences for students interested in learning computational social science skills. Skills included programming; acquiring, visualizing, and managing data; performing specialized analyses; and building knowledge about open-science practices.

Designing Authentic Undergraduate Research Experiences in a Single-Semester Lab Course

2015 ◽  
Vol 77 (7) ◽  
pp. 526-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas A. Mennella
Keyword(s):  
Fluorescent Protein ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Laboratory Course ◽  
E Coli ◽  
Undergraduate Research Experiences ◽  
Green Fluorescent ◽  
Scheduled Time

The importance of a robust undergraduate research experience has been demonstrated time and again. However, too few undergraduates engage in genuine research and leverage this opportunity. Here, I present a laboratory course in cell and molecular biology that is designed to mimic a true research project. Students work through a 10-step experimental design culminating in the construction, expression, and visualization of microtubules fused to green fluorescent protein in baker's yeast. The steps of this project include the isolation of the tubulin gene from yeast genomic DNA, the cloning of that gene into an expression vector, the amplification of this plasmid in E. coli, and the expression of fluorescent tubulin in yeast. Controls and validation steps are embedded throughout the project, as they would be in a genuine research project. This laboratory course more closely resembles a one-semester undergraduate research experience than a typical lab course. However, because this course reaches a much larger number of students compared with undergraduate research opportunities, it provides students with a valuable research experience that remains confined to the scheduled time block of a typical lab course. In this way, many of the benefits of research are experienced by a large number of undergraduates.

‘Mexicans love red’ and other gentrification myths: Displacements and contestations in the gentrification of Pilsen, Chicago, USA

Urban Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1711-1728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winifred Curran
Keyword(s):  
Iterative Process ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
Housing Affordability ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Community Resistance ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Resistance Strategies ◽  
Community Strategies

This article uses experiences from a decade-long community-based research project in the Pilsen neighbourhood of Chicago, a Mexican-American neighbourhood whose residents are both experiencing and resisting gentrification, to show how displacements and contestations evolve in conversation with each other in an iterative process we could call ‘actually existing’ gentrifications. I analyse a series of ‘moments’ in 13 years of research in Pilsen to illustrate the constantly shifting terrain of gentrification politics, covering not just housing affordability, but the nature of identity, democracy and belonging. As communities develop resistance strategies to gentrification, so too do city planners, policy makers and developers adapt to these community strategies to reframe their vision of the community. In highlighting both the success of community resistance in mitigating some of the worst effects of gentrification and the co-optation of some of these same strategies in the reframing of gentrification, my goal is to show that gentrification is rarely ever done or complete but is continuously enacted and resisted, challenging the idea that gentrification is somehow inevitable.

Service Learning Partnership Between University And School Students: Experiential Learning Inspired Through Community Research

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Nandan
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
High School Students ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Corporate Philanthropy ◽  
Community Research ◽  
School Students ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Community Based Research

This article describes a service learning project implemented jointly by undergraduate and high school students during summer.  The service learning project was designed through a Summer Research Institute hosted at a Midwestern University; the institute encouraged faculty to recruit undergraduate students who would partner with area high school students to conduct a community-based research project in their field of interest.  The article describes the partnership between students, as well as the experiential learning that occurred during: research topic identification, literature analysis, planning and implementing a mixed-methodology community-based research project, and during the qualitative and quantitative data analysis, by students.  Using a mosaic theory, the students inferred relationships between three apparently unrelated spheres of their research: challenges faced by youth in the community, financial health of social services for youth, and corporate philanthropy for youth services.  Recommendations for designing creative academic, experiential and service learning projects are offered for all educators. 

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