Thinking About Design: A Multiplicity of Options Cathryn A. Manduca SERC, Carleton College With help from the Keck Geology Consortium

The Importance of Design What are your goals? What are your resources? What are your constraints? Program success depends on designing activities that meet your goals, taking advantage of resources, and working around constraints. There are many possible goals and successful designs.

Possible Goals For Students Applying classroom learning to a research problem Testing interest in geoscience careers Exploring what it is like to do science Job skills: technical, communication, collaboration Self-confidence For Faculty Explore a new research area Publishable research Collaboration with students, community or scientists For Institution Connections to community High visibility program Faculty professional development

What are your resources? Who are your students? What are their strengths? Goals? What research facilities or field sites are available? Who are your natural collaborators? What funding is available or obtainable?

Critical Elements of a Project Defining the Problem Developing the Research Plan Collecting and Interpreting the Data Communicating the Results

Defining the Problem What are the issues? Student ownership of problem Meaningful well-defined problem Doable within time, equipment, logistical and funding constraints Aligned with lab priorities and research plan Student preparation and knowledge level

Possible strategies Mentor student through literature and guide them in developing project Introduce to a problem and choose from a list of possible projects Whole group collaborates to pick projects Students are given a project

Developing the Research Plan— What are the issues? Will it answer the question? Is it doable with reasonable time, equipment, personnel costs? Can the student learn the techniques? Interpret the results? Does the plan address learning goals? Does the plan maximize the experience for all of the students?

Possible Strategies Proposal writing and review cycle Student develops plan using specified techniques Standard protocols for data collection

Collecting and Interpreting Data— What are the Issues? Teaching techniques Catching bad data early Technical glitches/lab schedules Managing time and interdependencies Support vs. independence Meeting responsibilities to funders and project

Possible Strategies One-on-one mentoring Peer mentoring/research teams Structured reporting/check points

Communicating Results What are the issues? Successful quality presentation Meaningful venue Review and debate

Possible Strategies In-class research group presentations On-campus or national research fairs Professional society meetings Community presentations Internet discussion groups Papers reviewed by students or scientists

How to decide? Goals Opportunities Constraints Time Number of Students Preparation of Students Finances Lab/field set-up

Evaluation shows there are many pathways to success Pictures of different kinds of projects

References Council on Undergraduate Research ( Keck Geology Consortium (keck.carleton.edu) Broadly Defined Goals for Undergraduate Research Projects: A Basis for Program Evaluation, CUR Quarterly, December 1997, Learning Science Through Research: The Keck Geology Consortium Undergraduate Research Program, Geotimes, October 1997, The Value of Undergraduate Research Experiences: Reflections from Keck Geology Consortium Alumni, CUR Quarterly, March 1996, Project Kaleidoscope, Research Rich Environment,