The University of Colorado at Boulder聮s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and the Residential Academic Program in Baker Hall are teaming up this fall to facilitate undergraduate participation in faculty research.
The Baker Hall Academic Program will add to its existing emphasis on classes in environmental studies and natural science with a strong research orientation, said Professor Russell Monson. The new program is expected to draw 250 participating dorm residents this fall, said Monson, a professor in the environmental, population and organismic biology department.
Monson, who will direct the Baker program, said he hopes it will keep expanding until Baker earns the title "research dorm."
"We want Baker to gain the reputation as a place to make connections in research and to take advantage of the research prestige of the university," he said.
Part of the research atmosphere at Baker will come from the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, one of several UROP programs overseen by UROP Director J. McKim Malville.
Now in its third year, SURE gets undergraduate freshmen directly involved in research. The top applicants of the incoming freshmen class -- those with a GPA of 3.75 or higher and a combined SAT score of at least 1350 -- are invited to apply for the program, which includes a month of summer research before fall classes begin.
This summer, 33 of the 97 students who applied for SURE were accepted. They are involved in 21 projects with faculty members on topics like geology, biomedical sciences, physics, environmental sciences, business and space science.
Monson said he and Malville felt that more CU freshman and sophomores should get involved in research, and by starting earlier they can be exposed to a variety of research interests. This prompted them to organize the Baker program.
Monson said he hopes to see a positive effect by next year and will be tracking the number of students who go on to do research their sophomore year.
Malville said the SURE program changes the nature of the undergraduate experience. It allows students to create closer relationships with faculty -- many of whom are world-class researchers who involve the SURE students in significant studies.
During the fall semester, SURE students can continue with the research started in their summer programs or explore other research topics, Malville said.
To further encourage the establishment of a student research community, SURE students, as well as those who applied to the program but were not accepted, will be encouraged to live in Baker Hall this fall. Ongoing research advising in the dorm will be available to all students.
"The Baker program will let social connections established during SURE remain intact. It will also allow students to connect with more faculty and get students doing research earlier in their college careers," Monson said. Baker Hall also will be sponsoring dinners during the school year to bring students and faculty together in an effort to establish connections for research later on.
Another interesting aspect of the Baker-UROP alliance is a planned series of research-oriented outdoor field trips for students during the academic year. The trips are designed to combine adventure, exploration and discovery.
Possibilities include snowshoe trips for animal tracking or cycling trips to study exercise physiology, said Monson. UROP students end their projects by writing scientific papers on their findings, and students can share authorship with faculty and other UROP students and submit papers for journal publication.
"We have a premier university and first-class opportunities to get students involved in research," Monson said. The UROP program is geared to changing the perception that graduate studies are considered more important at big universities than undergraduate studies.
Malville pointed out that no other university offers the opportunity to study so closely with faculty early on, a program that fits CU well. "This is something CU can do well, because of the depth of research going on here. It gives us something to offer that liberal arts colleges cannot compete with."