How do I include Student Research in my class?
Research projects can be of various styles and lengths – from a short exercise completed during a single class period to a multi-week project.
Research projects can replace some existing assignments or a course (or parts of a course) can be designed around a research question. All projects involve discovery by the students, but the elements controlled by the student and by the professor (question addressed, data collection methods, location of project, etc.) may differ.
Five essential features of classroom inquiry, as described by the report Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning (more info) (2000) by the National Research Council can be readily transferred to the college classroom. These five features are:
- Learner engages in scientifically oriented questions
- Learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions
- Learner formulates explanations from evidence
- Learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge
- Learner communicates and justifies explanations
To help develop a sense of ownership of the project, students should have some influence over the project - the science question investigated, the methods of data collection and analysis, the project location, etc. , but practical considerations may limit the relative "openness" for different stages of the inquiry process.
The examples of student research projects included here range in the time and resources necessary for the projects, as well as the amount of guidance at each step. Click here for examples
