Doing research can be daunting.
The University of California, Merced, like its sister University of California campus, takes pride in offering students the opportunity to conduct research as part of their educational experience. But the idea of exploring concepts and producing new results can seem scary. Where on earth should I start?
This is where “Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences” (CUREs) come into play. CUREs bring the excitement of research into the classroom, improving learning and a sense of belonging to the field, said David Strubbe, a professor of physics at the University of California, Merced, in a recent paper. A paper on his work in the field.
Strubbe, who is also a member of the Materials and Biomaterials Science and Engineering (MBSE) graduate group at the University of California, Merced, said such experiences can impact more students earlier in their research than in typical undergraduate research. He said there is. Students learn and use research methods, provide input into projects, and generate and analyze new research data to draw previously unknown conclusions.
Although CUREs are common in other fields, they are less commonly used in materials science and engineering. Strubbe’s model for computational materials science, CURE, uses web-based simulation tools that require minimal computational skills. His research in this area is funded by a CAREER award and a Cottrell Fellowship earned from the National Science Foundation.
“The purpose is to have undergraduate students do research within the framework of their coursework,” Strubbe said. “This could be like a gateway to a more fulfilling experience.”
Strubbe used CURE in two classes, which created the problem of having many different structures to compute.
“When you add up all the things that students do together, you get meaningful data,” he said. “Overall, this answers a real research question.”
Elsa Vasquez is one of the students who participated in CURE.
“When I first started, all I knew about research was what I learned from my peers in my courses or from research organizations on campus that worked with undergraduate students.” said Vasquez, a first-generation college student. “I didn’t know what that meant. All I knew was that in order to graduate with my bachelor’s degree, I needed to find a lab and a project to work on, and then write a paper on it. Ta.”
By participating in research in Strubbe’s class, Vasquez and her classmates learned both the basics of research questions and the technical and computational skills needed to investigate them.
“I think it provides a perfect environment for students to work on research questions using the tools that the scientific community uses,” said the current physics graduate student, who is launching his own research project. said Vasquez, who has been working with undergraduate students. “CURE provides more structure that traditional laboratory research projects cannot provide. It means that you can go home.
That is one of his main goals, Strubbe said. It’s about getting students interested in research and giving them ideas about what they can do as professional scientists.
“It’s more than just solving homework problems,” he said. “You discover new things that no one knows yet and advance human knowledge.”
