What is Undergraduate Research?

Student research is "an inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate that makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to the discipline."

This definition from the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) emphasizes the critical points of inquiry and student-conducted research. It has also been said that inquiry-based learning and research are the same from the student perspective (Fortenberry, 1998) in that during both processes, the student discovers something new (either to her/himself or to the broader community).