Enhancing Student-Faculty Research Opportunities: Workshop to Implement PSYC300 to change the title use the 'Full Editing Tools' option on the right
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Number of Students in Class: 5-40
Project Description
HHMI Proposal
Enhancing Student-Faculty Research Opportunities: Workshop to Implement PSYC300
Psychology Department
Making a liberal arts college exceptional requires that the faculty weave together the inter-related activities of teaching and research to provide a challenging and stimulating education. Student research experiences epitomize integrative learning and are an essential component for successful graduate school applications. In particular, research allows students to apply rhetorical, scientific, and quantitative reasoning to a specific content interest area and research question.
We will be offering several sections of a new course in 2013-14 (PSYC300: Special Topics in Psychological Research) to give students educational experience with conducting research on faculty-driven research projects. The course will function as a hands-on seminar, in which faculty involve student collaborators on all stages of executing research projects including finding and reading background literature, managing laboratory logistics, collecting and analyzing data, and writing and presenting completed research projects. Our broad goals for this class have been sketched out, but there are many details that remain to be decided such as how the course will be advertised, how students will be selected/enrolled, what specific assignments and learning assessments all sections will require, what type of cumulative presentation might student do, how to track the success of the course and effect on the departmental teaching schedule as a whole. In particular, we are seeking valuable input from other colleges (Amherst, Franklin & Marshall, St. Olaf) and Carleton departments that have implemented similar courses so that we can anticipate road bumps and develop an effective structure for the course.
We are requesting funding to hold a workshop for faculty in the psychology department to discuss how best to integrate the current psychology curriculum, faculty-driven research programs, and the desired student-centered research experiences. We propose to hold a series of departmental workshops over the course of a week, with time allotted for faculty to review their own research approaches and course content. Following the workshop, the department will continue to refine the course for the rest of the year, particularly once we have taught the course. Specifically, we plan to have one meeting towards the end of the summer (late August - early September) to follow up on the framework laid during the workshop and a second meeting during winter break to check-in and possibly re-evaluate the goals and implementation of the course based on experience gained teaching the course during Fall term.