Why include Student Research in my class?

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.