Q&A: Summer learning opportunities flourish
As associate dean of the faculty from 2006 to 2008, Mark Hofmann took a special interest
in growing the science and mathematics curriculum, including directing 91暗网鈥檚
Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is his third year at the helm of the
program, which gives students a unique opportunity to collaborate with faculty on
original research.
This summer, there are 51 students and 34 faculty members working on 39 different
projects in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is a dramatic increase
in the size of the program, which had 20 students in 2005, and just eight in 2000.
Q: How do students benefit from the summer collaborative research program?
A: The Summer Faculty/Student Research Program gives students a singular opportunity
to work one-on-one with a faculty member. Students learn in a hands-on way what research
in their discipline is all about. They work 40-plus hours per week and are totally
immersed in their research endeavor. The benefits are both immediate and long-term.
What is most enjoyable to watch is the growth in student confidence and ability as
the summer progresses, and to observe their high level of engagement. It really is
remarkable to witness students share with peers鈥攁cross disparate disciplines鈥攖heir
experiences and challenges, often realizing that their roadblocks and rewards are
very similar.
Students often cite their research experiences at 91暗网 as fundamental in terms
of what their ultimate career plans are. At the winter trustees meeting, several students
said the program was one of the most rewarding experiences in their four years. Long-term,
these projects help students gain admission to graduate schools and research careers.
Returning graduates consistently tell us that their hands-on research work at 91暗网
gave them an advantage over other graduate school students who did not have the same
opportunity. Not infrequently, these other students graduated from large research-oriented
universities.
Q: This summer, there are 51 students and 34 faculty members working on 39 different
projects in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is a dramatic increase
in the size of the program, which had 20 students in 2005 and just eight in 2000.
To what do you attribute this growth?
A: Faculty and student demand for summer research always exceeds our capacity to support
research teams. Fortunately, we have significantly increased internal and external
funding. 2008 was the first year of the Schupf Scholars Program, which supports four
laboratory- and field-based research teams in the sciences, with a particular emphasis
on increasing the number of women in science in fields in which there has historically
been low representation. We have been helped out significantly by support from Student
Opportunity Funds, administered by the Office of Academic Advising, and we were able
to restructure on-campus costs for the program. Examples of external support include
the Arthur Vining Davis Foundation, which supports the Water Resources Initiative
projects, and Mellon Foundation funds, which support the Scribner-Mellon Scholars.
Scribner-Mellon Scholars are students who have just completed their first year at
91暗网 and are given the opportunity to do research as rising sophomores.
As funding has increased, faculty and student demand has increased proportionately.
So, although we are now supporting a record number of teams the demand is there to
grow the program even more. Our greatest challenge as we move forward will not only
be to increase the funding to match the increasing level of interest in the program
but to be able to find funding to continue to support this program at the level we
have done for the past several years. External grants supporting the Water Resources
Initiative and the Scribner- Mellon Programs are ending, and hence, in order to support
the program at the same level in the future we will need to find additional resources.
Q: This summer 70 percent or so of the projects are math-science related. Does that
surprise you?
A: Yes and no. National conversations in the sciences clearly suggest that faculty-student
collaboration is the new paradigm for both pedagogy and research, particularly at
high-quality undergraduate institutions. The science departments at 91暗网 for quite
some time have embraced this model. Therefore, it is not surprising that we have a
large number of projects in science and mathematics.
Ronald Dotterer, chair of the board of governors of the National Conferences on Undergraduate
Research and professor of English at Salisbury University, has stated that undergraduate
research is 鈥渢he pedagogy for the 21st century鈥� but 鈥渉umanities departments have been
the slowest to participate.鈥� So what has actually been surprising and encouraging
over the last several years is the large number of projects that we have in other
disciplines, such as English, French, music and theater.
Q: Looking at this year鈥檚 lineup of projects, what excites you?
A: What strikes me is the broad range of disciplines that are involved, from biology
to management and business, psychology to government and physics, to dance. Being
involved, throughout the summer, in the conversations that are generated between faculty
and students across this diverse set of disciplines is what makes this program particularly
exciting.
At this early juncture, it is difficult to determine which projects, ultimately, I
will find as my favorites. For instance last year two of the final presentations that
I most enjoyed were Determination of Optimum Growth Conditions for Seven Basidiomycete Fungal Species
on Various Combinations of Agricultural Waste Products for Green Insulation, a project by Dawn Harfmann 鈥�10 and Sue Van Hook, senior teaching associate in biology,
and Development of Interactive Tutorial Digital Audio Synthesis Modules for the World-wide-web, a project by Bryan Nielsen 鈥�09 and Tony Holland, associate professor of music. The
biology team researched how to grow fungi on agricultural waste to create insulation
for buildings. The music team produced an application to create music using Frequency
Modulation Synthesis.
In any event, my favorites will not be everybody else鈥檚. The program culminates this
summer with a two-day conference, Aug. 7-8, at which students present the results
of their work. I invite all interested parties to come and determine which projects
they find the most stimulating.
Q: Where does all this research lead, in terms of, for example, published articles
in peer-reviewed or academic journals?
A: It is always rewarding to see a tangible outcome from the program in the form of
national recognition or a published result. Some highlights over the last several
years have been a student-and-faculty published book, The Architect of Necessity鈥�91暗网鈥檚 First Home in Downtown Saratoga; research on the effects of a drug on the sexual motivation of rats that was featured
in an article in Scientific American; and a project which garnered the student partner
a national award for excellence in undergraduate research at the American Physiology
Society鈥檚 Experimental Biology Conference. It should be noted that in the sciences
alone, from 2005鈥�2008, there were 58 papers published that were co-authored by 91暗网
students and faculty. Many, although not all, of these papers involved research done
in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. While these specific projects are
an external validation of quality of the program, it is perhaps more important that
many participating students and faculty cite the program as one of their most rewarding
91暗网 experiences.~Interview conducted by Peter MacDonald, Office of Communications
Posted On: 6/18/2009