Education Commons^™

What's Missing In Honors Education: A Theory-Driven Approach, Cheryl L. Achterberg

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

If honors education is to thrive and mature in the future, better informed and more systematic thinking should be used to design and implement honors programs. The purpose of this paper is to establish a case for theory-driven research and practice as a means to improve honors education. It identifies the goals of honors education and then reasons that honors education should incorporate theory in order to advance the field. Theory is identified as a set of inter-related concepts, definitions, and propositions that specify how and why a phenomenon occurs. The most important function of a theory in honors education.is …

Issue Reaction: Integrating Service Learning Into Academic Courses, M. A. Dupont-Morales

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Service learning is the collaboration between academia, the community, the student, and a discipline. Such collaboration is a powerful introduction to the complexities of problems and the impact of those problems on the community. Students return to the classroom after completion of service learning for critical discussion of social issues, contemplation about policy, collaborative planning of alternative solutions, awareness of cultural impact, and perceptiveness about the complexities of service efforts and accomplishments. A distinction between service learning and academic learning is the concrete interaction with the community. The goals of the curriculum need to mesh with the mission of the …

Honors Collaborations: The Presidency In Speech And Composition, Sandy Feinstein, Jeff Kurtz

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Typically at Penn State University, Honors English Composition (30) is offered fall semester as a pre-requisite for Honors Speech Communication 100, offered in the spring. This arrangement may reflect the intellectual shifts within these disciplines, implicitly signifying the distance that has grown ~etween them and casting in relief the question of who "owns" rhetoric. In developing our courses in Speech and Composition, we sought to close this rift and in so doing create a community for our students in which issues in speech are explicitly recognized as issues in writing and vice versa. In addition, we wanted to create a …

Multi-Disciplinary Study, Responsible Policy-Making, And Problem-Based Learning In Honors Courses, Michael Edwards

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This paper explains how problem-based learning (PBL) is incorporated into a multidisciplinary, team-taught honors seminar, "Poverty amidst Plenty," by means of an eight-step process that implements a curricular metaphor-student as legislative aide. The process allows students' self-directed skills to develop while faculty roles in the course change from instructors to resource and research guides. In turning their research into policy position papers, students develop and share sources, strategies, and solutions. They also acquire web-design skills in order to cultivate informed "outside constituencies" supportive of their policy positions.

In addition to a course-planning strategy that can be modified to fit most …

Enriching The Academic Community Through A Semesterlong Honors Symposium, Earl Brown Jr., Margaret C. Brown

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This paper will focus on the theory and practice of a semester-long honors symposium on a current topic of significance to the academic and area community (e.g., the environment, service learning, ethics, the search for peace, cultural diversity). One purpose for such a symposium is to provide leadership opportunities for students to develop a topic, organize events (including time and place), find and contract speakers, create and distribute publicity both on and off campus, arrange for receptions and book signings, find students to introduce speakers, and create opportunities for students to present and share their research. A second purpose is …

Leaving Home With It: Using Information Technology To Create Crossnational Design Teams, Richard Devon, Pierre Buvat

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This paper describes a five-year use of information technology to create cross-national design teams in an engineering design class. The program features robust, interdisciplinary, industry-sponsored projects that are presented and solved using a wide array of inexpensive, readily available technology. The structure should not be viewed simply as providing an alternative to actual travel. On the contrary, it raises the likelihood that the exposed students actually will travel.

The Maryland Gemstone Program, William W. Destler

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

The Maryland Gemstone Program is a unique four-year honors program in which undergraduates from all majors are teamed together in groups of 10-15 students and challenged to address some aspect of a major societal problem containing technological, social, ethical, and business elements. At the conclusion of the program, each team submits a team thesis, which is reviewed by academic, corporate, and governmental representatives. Upon successful completion of the program, Gemstone students receive their undergraduate degrees with a special Gemstone Citation. The process of curriculum development, research project management, and particular lessons learned from the first cohort to complete the program …

Why Involve Students In Research?, Rodney A. Erickson

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This article addresses the benefits of undergraduate research to students, to faculty, and to universities. Research experiences are credited with increasing motivation for learning, helping undergraduate students decide on a career path, forming mentoring relationships between students and faculty, and improving student performance in writing, speaking, and working in teams. For many students, research experiences are their most memorable experiences as undergraduates. From the perspective of universities, students bring enthusiasm to research teams and often ask insightful questions-sometimes quite by accident-that can change the ways faculty approach research inquiries. Student researchers contribute to the world of knowledge. Research universities have …

A Historical Perspective On Interdisciplinarity And Undergraduate Research In Honors Education, Julianna Chaszar

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Honors education and curricular innovations have gone hand in hand since the first honors courses appeared in the 1920s. Undergraduate research and interdisciplinary studies are among the approaches that honors programs have adopted to further learning among their students. Both approaches provide students with opportunities to experience how knowledge is produced. Recent thinking on knowledge production, including the idea of "transdisciplinarity," parallels trends on campuses and in the broader society. Honors faculty might continue their historic role of curricular leadership by examining these emerging issues with their students

The Insiders: Undergraduates Critically Examine The Pros And Cons Of A Team-Based Marine Research Program, Traci J. Heincelman, Edward J. Majzlik, Christie A. Robinson, Lindsey J. Wise

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

The Marine and Aquatic Research Experience (MARE) is a student-generated, facultyguided not mandated, model for hands-on, team-based, environmental science research for undergraduates, of any class rank and any academic major. MARE is unique in many ways compared to traditional undergraduate research models. MARE was envisioned and established in the fall of 1998 as part of two Research-Based Learning (RBL) Critical Connection Courses (CCC) entitled Design of Inquiry in Science and Implementation of Inquiry in Science. The initial goal was to study the dynamic processes occurring in Winyah Bay, South Carolina. As we began to establish research directions, MARE members organized …

Introduction: Unpacking The Research Encyclopedia, Josephine M. Carubia, Renata S. Engel

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Ernest Boyer's work is the touchstone for most contemporary discussions about research and scholarship and is as pertinent to undergraduate research as to the professional research of faculty. This introduction will begin with Boyer so that his definitions and philosophies may inform additional discussions concerning the epistemologies, methodologies, and hierarchies embedded within the creative human pursuits we call research and scholarship. Boyer's work may be valued as much for the vocabulary it endows upon this conversation as for its impact on the values and purposes of higher education. His articulation of terminology for a range of creative pursuits under the …

Patterns Of Engagement In Service Leadership: First Year To Senior Year, Josephine Carubia, Sara Faber, Soma Kedia, Nicole Sandretto, Adam Tarosky, Joann C. Vender

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This paper describes a model of service leadership that can be followed by university students throughout their academic career. The intent of this project is to help students understand their growth .in civic responsibility and leadership and to put it in context with the growth of other students. Using a grounded-theory approach from quantitative and qualitative surveys and case studies, the research team of seven undergraduates and two staff members from the Schreyer Honors College developed three distinct, non-exclusive tracks that revolve around a theme of vision development. The three tracks include Service to the On-Campus Community, Service to the …

Ii. Curriculum Models That Include Undergraduate Research

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This chapter features different perspectives on integrating research into the curriculum. The series of papers describes programs, credit bearing as well as non-credit bearing, that include a significant research component.

The first four papers provide an excellent contrast of approaches to bringing research into the undergraduate curriculum. The Gemstone Program at the University of Maryland is a fouryear honors program that includes research methods courses and a four-year-long, team-based research project. The students identify the topic, propose the research question and are mentored by a faculty member. The next model describes the efforts in Muhlenberg College's Biology Department to include …

Iv. Undergraduate Research Via Service Learning And Outreach

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Recent national trends to incorporate service learning in academic programs demonstrate the growing commitment to the scholarship of engagement by universities. This chapter features papers that address both the student rewards of being involved in meaningful research that touches the community and the challenges associated with developing and maintaining these unique projects.

Carubia et al. describe a model of student research that integrates service leadership vertically within a university education, thus allowing students to develop their vision for addressing a local or global community issue. Vender chronicles a rigorous service learning experience by peppering student reflections throughout her description of …

Issue Reaction: Introducing Students To Social Inquiry Research, Alfred G. Mueller Ii

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Social inquiry courses provide students with the means necessary to confront significant social issues, typically through a mixture of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Faculty members who teach these types of courses, however, encounter four basic problems. First, students often resist taking the critical postures necessary to do social research, largely because such postures in some way threaten the stability that students try to impose upon the world. Second, the ambiguity surrounding social issues and approaches to social research frustrates students' desires to maintain the type of order they were accustomed to at the secondary level, leading to further resistance …

Issue Reaction: Inquiry-Based Learning In The College Classroom, Jill L. Lane, Joanne M. Cawley

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Inquiry-based learning is a research-based learning technique used to promote student comprehension, self-reflection, and research skills. The implementation of inquiry-based learning methods in the classroom can look very different depending on student factors, such as academic level, and on instructional variations, such as academic discipline. In all cases, students will learn more meaningful information if inquiry-based activities are student-centered. The five phases of inquiry-based learning are (1) identification of prior knowledge, (2) student exploration, (3) focus on content, (4) organization of new ideas, and (5) application to new situations. This issue reaction explores ideas on how to implement inquiry-based learning …

I. Making The Case For Undergraduate Research

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

In this section Josephine Carubia and Renata Engel introduce the topic of undergraduate research by focusing on the current definitions of scholarship. They place those definitions in the context of specific disciplines and research opportunities. Next, two distinguished educators engage scholarship and also reflect upon the reasoning and purposes that support the practice of undergraduate research. Alan Jenkins probes data on the impacts of undergraduate research in an attempt to answer the most preliminary and crucial questions of whether educators should support this experience, and if so, why and how. He starts out a skeptic and slowly persuades himself, along …

Iii. Course Models That Include Undergraduate Research

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Individual courses are often the best place to begin integrating research into the student academic experience. As demonstrated by the five papers in this section, research can be included in a wide array of courses. The authors of the papers included in this section use discipline-specific and general education courses to introduce research methods and projectbased techniques. One of the recurring themes emerging from their papers is the importance of providing opportunities for the students to learn the foundation material in the context of addressing problems or probing questions. This problem-based learning approach is outlined very nicely in Edwards' paper. …

Vi. The Next Challenges

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

One of the basic principles of research and of education in general is that challenges propel new learning. This final section raises two fundamental challenges for one of the most frequent sites of undergraduate research: honors programs and colleges. The way each institution responds to these challenges can affect the direction and future of undergraduate research. Anthony Pittman explores perceptions held by African American students about the recruitment practices and climate of honors programs and colleges. The challenge of welcoming a diverse student population pervades higher education and has implications for research programs both inside and outside honors education. Cheryl …

Honors Colloquium: Berlin In The 1940s, Charles F. Pennacchio

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

"Berlin in the 1940s" is an honors course that can foster high levels of communication, creativity, personal responsibility, intellectual community building, and synthetic analysis. The seminar itself provides an interdisciplinary and international approach to understanding "local" Berlin (Germany) during its wartime, 1939-1945, and postwar, 1945-1949, crisis periods. Students have the opportunity to stretch themselves between and among an assortment of disciplines, including diplomatic, economic, social, intellectual, architectural, and film studies, among others. Despite the limitations of time (one 75-minute meeting per week) and resources (primarily my own), the students still had available to them virtually all of the primary and …

How (Or Whether?) To Integrate Research Into Classroom Teaching For All Students And All Higher Education Institutions, Alan Jenkins

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

The chapter starts by posing a range of questions re teaching/research relations and, in particular, asks whether such is only for selected students in elite/wealthy institutions. The issues are complex and before considering the evidence some of this complexity is discussed-for our answers to the chapter'~ central questions depend in part on how we 'define' 'undergraduate research' or 'linking teaching and research.' The arguments, including research evidence that undergraduate research should be for selected students, are then presented, including a major review of the research which concludes that the 'common belief that teaching and research are inextricably intertwined is an …

V. Learning Strategies That Support Undergraduate Research

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This section provides an excellent overview of learning strategies that are conducive to supporting undergraduate research in the classroom. Whitfield opens with an overview of the value of a problem-based learning curriculum. Although it is couched in terms of the College of Medicine, the paper is applicable to many disciplines as well as undergraduate and graduate students. She highlights some of the pitfalls, practical tips, and problem development strategies so as to derive the maximum benefit from problem-based learning methods. Williams, Sederberg and Eddins describe research-based learning (RBL) and illustrate the learning strategy with the Marine and Aquatic Research Experience …

Creating An Undergraduate Culture Of Science By Integrating Inquiry, Project-Based Learning, And Research Into The Curriculum, Richard A. Niesenbaum

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Full engagement in science includes observation and asking questions, the development of a hypothesis, designing and conducting an appropriate experiment to test that hypothesis, data acquisition, appropriate analysis, revisiting initial questions, and dissemination of results. Here, I report on efforts to engage undergraduate students in all of these elements of science by integrating inquiry, investigation, and research in four intermediate biology courses for all majors. The project-based courses include Plant Ecology, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Molecular Genetics, and Physiological Ecology. Students conduct semester-long, experimental research projects and present their results at a public poster session on campus. Using computers, peripherals, and …

Table Of Contents

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Preface

I. Making the Case for Undergraduate Research

Introduction: Unpacking the Research Encyclopedia (Josephine Carubia; Renata Engel)

How (Or Whether?) To Integrate Research into Classroom Teaching for All Students and All Higher Education Institutions (Alan Jenkins)

Why Involve Students in Research? (Rodney A. Erickson)

II. Curriculum Models that Include Undergraduate Research

The Maryland Gemstone Program (William W Destler)

Creating an Undergraduate Culture of Science by Integrating Inquiry, Project-based Learning and Research into the Curriculum (Richard A. Niesenbaum)

THE INSIDERS: Undergraduates Critically Examine the Pros and Cons of a Team-based Marine Research Program (Traci J Heincelman; Edward J Majzlik; Christie A. …

Issue Reaction: Honors Theses In The Creative And Performing Arts, Joanne Rutkowski, Taylor Aitken Greer, Mary Heather Hartley

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This 'Issue Reaction' focuses on describing the meaning of an 'honors thesis' in the creative and performing arts and defining appropriate approaches for guiding students on their thesis work in these fields. In general, a 'project' complements the thesis (the work of art) and is the written reflective component. The process for completing the project and written work will vary according to the nature of the work and student. One approach is to establish why the project is important and should be undertaken, how it will be completed or approached, and who will be involved or what the outcome will …

Diversity Issues & Honors Education, Anthony A. Pittman

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Are honors programs across the country obligated to increase the percentages of minority students enrolled in their programs? Is it necessary that honors programs prepare their members to work in a global economy with its many facets and features? The answers to both of these questions may seem obvious. However, very little research has been done to examine why there is such a disparity between whites and students of color enrolled and actively participating in honors programs at majority institutions across the United States. Consequently, many college and university honors programs fail to experience the benefits and advantages that may …

Ancient Myths In A Modern World: A Multi-Media Approach To Honors Education And Undergraduate Research, Richard Ernest Walker

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This Honors seminar examines a number of myths generated by diverse cultural groups (American Indian, Central and South American, African, and Asian) both in their ancient context and, wherever possible, in their actualizations in modem society. The title of the seminar should be viewed rather as a question than as a statement: Can we observe the traces of myths and/or forms of mythic thinking in the various structures, activities, and beliefs of modem societies? The scope and the diversity of cultural content makes the course appropriate as a general education course; it requires the student to think critically and analytically …

Mass Program At Penn State, Serge Tabachnikov

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

The MASS program--Mathematics Advanced Study Semesters--at Penn State's Mathematics department was founded in 1996. MASS is a unique, innovative, intensive program for select groups of undergraduates recruited every year from around the United States and brought to Penn State's campus for the fall semester. This program provides a unique and mutually reinforcing blend of learning and research activities for its participants.

Promise, Peril, And Potential: Developing, Implementing; And Assessing Problem-Based Learning At The Undergraduate Level, Carol F. Whitfield

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

In an effort to cope with the vastly expanding body of knowledge in medicine, medical educators in the last 20 years began to realize that not all the facts one needed to know to practice could be 'taught' in four years of medical school. Furthermore, recall of material learned during the 'chock-full-of-facts' early years was discouragingly poor, and learned information went out of date very quickly. Educators came to the realization that producing students who were life-long self-learners was a reasonable solution. Even earlier, a few schools such as McMaster University in Canada began using problem based learning (PBL) in …

Community Action Research: A Three-Part Servicelearning Course Model, Joann C. Vender

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

This paper discusses a model for a three-part service-learning course developed by the Schreyer Honors College and Department of Geography at Penn State. Piloted during the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2001, "Geography 298H--Experiences in International Service Learning: Juarez, Mexico" was designed to engage participants in a meaningful community development project while learning about the conditions, challenges, and prospects of a specific world region. After a semester of background preparation that included discussions with faculty members across many disciplines and team research resulting in a l48-page field guide, participating students traveled to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, where they constructed a …