Research and Creative Activity

Research and Creative Activities come in many different forms, but common to all is the novelty of the outcomes, that is, using knowledge and documented prior work to extend existing work or embark in new directions. A further general outcome is that such work should be community to professional communities or committees at large.

 In such work, students will integrate knowledge obtained from prior classroom knowledge and relevant knowledge obtained from literature searches.  Working with faculty supervisor(s) and, depending on the project, additional external advisors,  the community, student will develop and implement their own ideas for furthering their projects. 

Projects can be carried out individually or in disciplinary and multidisciplinary teams. Projects may take place on-campus or off-campus.

Individual Research or Creative Activity

Most commonly, individual research or creative projects are carried out as culminating capstone experience; however, such projects can also extend over multiple terms.  Students will register for the appropriate courses. WHile courses are typically at the upper-division level (i.e., 400- or 400-level), there are a number of programs that do  encourage and emab;e students to participate in these activities much earlier in their college education. Students should consult with their professional and/or faculty advisors for more information.

Benefits: In a In a research or creative activity, students typically will

• Integrate classroom knowledge into and prior work from the literature to an authentic problem and learning to actively seek out knowledge and advice to support project outcomes.
• Gain a deeper understanding of the background and methods in the project area.
• Have the opportunity to create original work in consultation with a faculty supervisor, and, depending on the projects, with additional internal and external advisors.
• Practice the process of continuous improvement  as the project develops, project data is gathered and critically evaluated and as a result the project work is further refined.
• Present outcomes at professional conferences, the university community or to the general public, which teaches communication skills but which also can be a stand-out feature in a resume of job application.

Team/Group Research or Creative Activities

Team research or creative activities can be carried out within the framework of the culminating capstone experiences described above, when large project goals enable teams of students to work together towards the overall outcome. Team/group research may also take place within lecture courses when all students in the course work together on a class project.

Benefits: In addition to the benefits afforded  by individual research/creative activity, students will

• Assume real responsibility and accountability for the outcomes to be advanced by the entire team.
• Gain practical experience on how to work in teams, how to contribute to the design of the larger project and how to distribute work to individual team members.
• Learn and practice communications skills within a team (internal communications) and how to present a group  project with multiple contributors  to the outside world.