Creating and Implementing an Undergraduate Research Lab in Political Science

Abstract

Faculty members are increasingly recognizing the value of integrating high impact practices, such as undergraduate research, into the college experience. In this paper, I argue that one way of getting undergraduate students involved in political science research is to develop undergraduate research labs, wherein a small group of undergraduate students works collaboratively with a faculty member to carry out the research process from start to finish. I focus on how to develop and operate research labs at small to mid-sized institutions. I provide an overview of how I organized and conducted an undergraduate research lab and illustrate how the lab worked by describing a project that my lab recently carried out. I also describe how political science research labs can benefit students and political science programs. I end by reflecting on what I learned along the way, which I hope will be helpful to others who are considering developing similar experiences. Overall, I encourage other political scientists to develop undergraduate research labs but argue that, given the high teaching loads at many institutions, faculty should operate research labs as classes so that they count as part of one’s teaching load.