What is Undergraduate Research?

According to the : “Undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative inquiry is fundamentally a pedagogical approach to teaching and learning”. With an emphasis on process, CUR defines undergraduate research as: “a mentored investigation or creative inquiry conducted by undergraduates that seeks to make a scholarly or artistic contribution to knowledge.”

At 鶹Ƶ, Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors include activities undertaken by an undergraduate student with significant faculty mentoring that:

  1. Lead to new scholarly insights and/or creation of new works;
  2. Add to the discipline;
  3. and involve critical analysis of the process and/or outcome of the activities

Quality undergraduate research and creative activity result in a product that has potential for peer-reviewed dissemination in the form of presentations, publications, exhibitions or performances. This definition underlies the decisions made with regard to grants, scholarships and fellowships. It is not expected that all undergraduate research result in peer-reviewed dissemination, rather that the endeavor has that potential. Faculty are supported in their mentoring through mentor development grants, workshops, through the online journal Perspectives on Undergraduate Research and Mentoring, and through institutional membership in the .

Course Embedded Research (CER)

At 鶹Ƶ, undergraduate research may also take place in classrooms and laboratory settings through course-embedded research (CER). This includes faculty-guided, student-driven inquiry and/or creative activity that is grounded by disciplinary* context and knowledge, is central to the course learning goals, and unfolds throughout a substantial portion of the course. Students in such courses use methods appropriate to the standards of the discipline in the process of discovery, and products are communicated in a mode and form characteristic of the discipline.

CERs are characterized by these key elements: 

  1.  Students are engaged in the process of discovery in the sense that the students do not know the outcome prior to undertaking the investigation;
  2. The knowledge created is valued within the discipline, though it may not constitute a novel contribution;
  3. Students are guided in this process by faculty with disciplinary expertise, though the extent of guidance will differ depending on the course;
  4. While guided by faculty, there is decision-making agency by students in one or more steps in the research process;
  5. Students participate in multiple steps of the research and/or creative process within that discipline;
  6. One or more steps in the research and/or creative process are iterated (reflected upon and repeated) within the course;
  7. Students participate in communicating some portion of the work, although not necessarily  beyond the scope of the course.

* The terms “discipline” and “disciplinary” are used in their broadest senses. This definition encompasses courses that span multiple disciplines, as well as those in interdisciplinary programs.