Embedding Undergraduate Student Research Experiences in the Community College Curriculum

Abstract

Community colleges have long struggled with the question of how to incorporate student research activities into the undergraduate curriculum. Common barriers to maintaining an active research agenda for two-year faculty include high teaching loads, lack of adequate facilities and support staff, a lack of graduate or upper-level undergraduate students to serve as teaching assistants, and a student population which is often under-prepared and transient in terms of how they expect to move through major requirements.In response to this situation, various community colleges have begun to explore potential solutions, recognizing that we have an obligation to our students, especially those who plan to transfer to four-year universities, to provide comparable skills and experiences that will prepare them to continue their educations at a level consistent with those of their peers who spend their entire undergraduate educations at a single institution. One such initiative is the Council on Undergraduate Education (CUR) workshops (funded by the National Science Foundation) on “Developing Undergraduate Research at Community Colleges”, which began in the 2010-2011 academic year, and continues in the current academic year. These workshops pair faculty and administrators at two-year institutions which have embedded undergraduate research in the curriculum with counterparts at institutions which plan to follow suit in the near future. Another is a statewide project in the state of Minnesota (under the auspices of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Leadership Academy) which plans to identify resources, level-appropriate expectations, and to showcase opportunities for faculty and students at four-year institutions to share their research experiences with two-year colleagues.The presenter has been involved in both of these initiatives (he serves on the MnSCU team mentioned above, and is the team leader for a college group being trained at the October 2011 CUR workshop in Minneapolis). Findings from both projects will be shared with fellow panelists and participants; however, the primary purpose of this presentation is to encourage a discussion of successful practices that other faculty have implemented. Topics to be discussed could include partnerships between two-year and neighboring four-year institutions, potential funding sources, capstone projects, course-level assignments, and the teaching of a methods course at the sophomore level (either as a stand-alone Political Science course, or in conjunction with faculty from other Social Science disciplines). Participant involvement is highly encouraged; the primary purpose of this presentation is to start a dialogue which would allow faculty at various institutions to brainstorm and share their expertise.