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During this presentation, a faculty member, who has been conducting undergraduate research teams and worked with numerous undergraduate students on their senior thesis for over ten years, will share the structure of undergraduate research and the benefits and the challenges of working with undergraduate researchers. First, recruitment of students as well as how these teams are conducted will be explored. These undergraduate research teams provide students with an opportunity to experience the research process first hand from conception through final dissemination, be it a published manuscript, poster/oral presentation, and/or community outreach materials. The research project is meant to be student-driven, with strong guidance provided by the mentoring professor. Three different ways of guiding students toward a strong research question will be discussed: (a) student-interest, (b) student-interest with set requirements (e.g., specific constructs), and (c) professor-initiated projects. Second, the faculty member will share the multiple benefits of mentoring undergraduate research. Benefits include knowing students in different contexts, watching students grow and develop, assisting them in their writing and critical thinking, and witnessing their pride when our research is presented or published. The third purpose of this presentation is to examine the struggles that are encountered when conducting research teams. Specifically, three struggles will be considered. The first struggle is maintaining a coherent line of research, as untenured faculty, while mentoring student-driven research. Second, is assisting undergraduate students in generating a meaningful research question emanating from the research literature and not simply prior experience. The final struggle is maintaining a balance between empowering undergraduate students while providing strong guidance.
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