DISSEMINATION

1. EXPANDING A CAMPUS CULTURE OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AT UMBCDiane Lee1, Kathy Lee Sutphin2 and Janet McGlynn11Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE), 2College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences (CNMS)University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250 http://www.umbc.edu DISSEMINATION ABOUT UMBC The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a selective, mid-sized public research university located between Baltimore, Maryland and Washington, DC in the USA. Founded in 1966, UMBC began with limited graduate programs and its faculty looked to UMBC’s cadre of talented undergraduates to support their research investigations. This practice created many unique undergraduate experiences and helped build a campus culture focused on the benefits of undergraduate research. UMBC was ranked number one in the 2010 list of “Up-and-Coming” national universities in the September 2009 U.S. News & World Report America’s Best Colleges Guide and has Carnegie Foundation classification “Research Universities with high research activity.” UMBC offers 54 majors to its 9,947 undergraduates and 24 doctoral degree, 33 masters programs, and 20 certificate programs to its 2,923 graduate students. UMBC is a very diverse campus as reflected by its average minority enrollment of 37 percent in Fall 2009. The GPA and completion rate of UMBC students from groups underrepresented in the sciences equals or exceeds overall student performance, thanks, in part, to the university’s nationally-recognized Meyerhoff Scholars Programs. In 2009, UMBC’s strong commitment to undergraduate research was recognized when the U.S. News and World Report named it as one of 27 institutions where “Students do intensive and self-directed research or creative work that results in an original scholarly paper or product that can be formally presented on or off campus.” • Recognizing the importance of the dissemination experience, UMBC provides opportunities for students to communicate their undergraduate research, scholarship, and creative work through presentation: • in UMBC Review: A Journal of Undergraduate Research, • at URCAD, with print and web publication of abstracts, • at the Annual Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF) hosted by the College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, with publication of abstracts in the SURF program book, and • at discipline-specific conferences and festivals, with campus funding for travel. SYMPOSIA • UMBC hosts annual symposia to ensure undergraduates have the opportunity for public presentations of their independent research, scholarship and creative work. Scholarly dissemination of results is key to the practical and pedagogical success of the research experiences. Special emphasis has been given to developing engaged and interested audiences, and making sure that students are able to explain “why this work is important” in common language. Current UMBC venues include: • McNair Scholars Research Conference (September) • Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium in the Chemical and Biological Sciences (October) • Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) (April) • CNMS Summer Undergraduate Research Fest (SURF) (August) FOCUS ON - UMBC Review UMBC’s Journal of Undergraduate Research provides both an annual forum for publication of up to 15 student research projects, and the opportunity for other undergraduates to serve as the publication’s editors and designer. This student editing and design team solicit and select manuscripts, seek appropriate peer review, work with authors to edit content, create the journal design, carry out all typesetting, and complete other tasks. Their overall experience is comparable to a comprehensive, professional-level editorial responsibility. 2008 URCAD Poster Session FOCUS ON - URCAD URCAD is the jewel in the crown of UMBC’s campus-wide undergraduate research initiatives. It brings more than 1,300 people, or nearly 10 percent of the campus community, together each spring to support and learn from student independent research, scholarship and creative work. URCAD involves students from all disciplines in concurrent platform talks, poster sessions, musical and dance performances, original video screenings, graphics exhibits, and panel discussions. Attendance continues to grow as the campus community looks forward to the breadth and depth of the student presentations, and as faculty members encourage student attendance by giving extra course credit or adding URCAD-related course assignments.The growth of this conference, which featured 165 presenters in eight venues in 2009, requires that more and more faculty, students, and staff become engaged in the event operation. Members of the URCAD committee review application abstracts and select participants. Individual mentors coach and prepare students. Faculty members volunteer to moderate sessions, staff provide event coordination and promote research opportunities at an exhibit table and more than 50 students volunteer to set up, give directions, ferry materials, organize signage, and otherwise support the annual event. Additional faculty members assist by holding workshops to help prepare students to deliver high quality oral and poster presentations, and also ensuring that students are able to talk about the intellectual and artistic contributions inherent in the independent creative works featured at URCAD. “URCAD is indistinguishable in content, quality, attendance, audienceparticipation, and professionalism from symposia of professional societies.”Dr. Teresa Viancour, OUE Associate Provost and UMBC Professor of Biological Sciences (retired) UMBC Campus Culture • Serving as a CASTL Undergraduate Research Leadership Site inspired team members at UMBC to examine campus initiatives in applied learning to identify the university’s strengths worthy of sharing, and opportunities for further development. In addition to the regular site leadership team responsibilities, and as part of the CASTL experience, UMBC: • surveyed department representatives to discuss the varying definitions of undergraduate research • created a comprehensive inventory of undergraduate research activities including independent study and other credit-bearing courses • used the undergraduate research inventory to identify student researchers and encourage participation in campus-wide undergraduate research programming • disseminated the survey and inventory results to faculty and administrators resulting in additional support for undergraduate research initiatives including travel awards for undergraduates presenting their research at regional and national conferences • presented information about URCAD, with an emphasis on audience development, at the 2008 CUR Conference, and • contacted David Lopatto of Grinnell College about a possible collaboration related to surveying undergraduate researchers at UMBC THE CASTL EFFECT UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCHSUPPORT Replicating the faculty or professional experience is central to undergraduate research programming at UMBC. Undergraduate Research Award applications are a scaled-down version of discipline-specific proposals. Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievement Day (URCAD) dispenses with judging and awards in favor of offering students an experience similar to a professional conference, including networking and professional development. Articles submitted to the UMBC Review receive peer review and authors are coached by student editors on revisions for publication. Major support from senior administrators facilitates continual growth. Faculty members dedicate valuable time as mentors, program directors, committee members and principal investigators to support undergraduate research for both UMBC students and summer visitors. FOCUS ON - Undergraduate Research Awards (URA) A formal application process allows undergraduate students to propose their own investigations and must include a purpose, methods, materials, evaluation, a complete budget, and mentor support. From airfare to Albania to study communism and censorship to Drosophila larvae to understand the genetic basis of aging and immunity, proposals request resources needed for original student research. The arts, humanities, and social sciences are strongly represented, along with sciences, mathematics and engineering. Winning proposals are selected by a faculty review committee. Students may request up to $1,500 to support their work. ASSESSMENT and FUTURE EFFORTS • Possible next steps at UMBC: • pilot a formal survey of students who have presented at URCAD • conduct a formal survey of faculty research mentors in collaboration with CASTL • analyze student data for outcomes related to the impact of undergraduate research experiences including time to degree, graduate and professional school acceptance, and employment • design a credit-bearing undergraduate course to focus on the preparation needed for excellent presentations of research projects, and/or submission of quality research proposals for funding • explore with humanities faculty members possible ways to make undergraduate research more accessible. Presentations 2006 through 2009