Earlier this year,  a brief study was conducted examining faculty perceptions of undergraduate research at UM-Flint. A central theme pointed out by many of you was the general lack of research skills students possessed. Even if students had an interest in doing research, they did not always have the requisite skills; thus calling for you to devote even more time preparing and training students. In response to your comments and suggestions, the Office of Research plans to launch a series of workshops next semester; designed to improve general research skills of our students. Tentatively, here are the following topic areas:

• Getting started (identifying research interests, forming research questions, finding a faculty mentor)
• Conducting literature reviews
• Library Research
• Research Design
• Statistical Analysis and Interpretation
• Writing Research Papers
• Creating a Research Presentation
• Submitting a Paper for Publication
• Research Opportunities on Campus
• Panel Discussion: “From the Students’ Mouths: Perspectives from Research Students” (I plan to recruit some of my UROP students for this panel, but I’d love your suggestions for student researchers)

We plan to host these 1-hour sessions in the winter semester, leading up to Meeting of Minds (which, by the way, will be hosted by UM-Flint this year. More on that in the upcoming months). But before we can start publicizing, we need faculty willing to facilitate any of the workshops above. Also, if you have any other research topic areas you would like to cover (ideally, of a general nature), your suggestions are welcomed!

If you’re interested in presenting on any of these areas, please contact Andre Louis. We would like to have a roster in place by December 1st.

Thanks for all you do in support of undergraduate research on our campus!