Why Use Undergraduate Research Experiences?

Conducting research engages student interest and provides opportunities for them to participate in active learning in the classroom—factors which promote student motivation and enhanced learning.

• Such activities are recommended by recent pedagogical studies - e.g.,
  • Shaping the Future (NSF 96-139) recommends that faculty "build inquiry, a sense of wonder and the excitement of discovery" into learning experiences and
  • the Boyer Report (1998) (more info) on "Reinventing Undergraduate Education" calls for making research-based learning the standard in research universities - " beginning in the freshman year, students should be able to engage in research in as many courses as possible."
• Student-conducted research also provides the student with a sense of ownership of the problem addressed (Macdonald et al., 2005).

Thus student research provides a student-centered, active learning environment in which the student is vested in the problem addressed.