Psychology majors typically conduct at least one research project during their undergraduate studies, yet these projects rarely make a scientific contribution beyond the classroom. In this study, we explored one potential reason for this--that student projects may not be aligned with best practices in the field. In other words, we wondered if…

This article describes a project to engage sociology students in real-world research designed to foster critical thinking about food security. Faculty-librarian collaboration was an essential component. An open-ended questionnaire was administered to three classes at the end of the semester. Assessed were students' experiences gathering data and…

This article describes a lesson plan that harnessed students' abilities to generate new teaching material by constructing country timelines. This involved "crowdsourcing," or the reliance upon task inputs from a large number of people to acquire information. The plan was motivated by an approach that conceives of learning as deriving…

In this article, the authors discuss and describe the implementation of and lessons learned from a course project centered on the creation of an infographic in a health economics course and an introduction to health research course. Students were asked to create a simple infographic about a particular topic, after researching and gathering data on…

Study-abroad and international-student programs are commonly understood to transform their participants into "global citizens" possessing "cross-cultural competencies." Similar benefits are anticipated from "internationalization at home"--defined as any on-campus, internationally related activity--whereby…

Millions of hours are spent on assignments in university education every year. This exploratory paper describes ways in which instructors can create assignments that not only educate students, but also create lasting online contributions for use by scholars and future students. I describe case studies of assignment types I have used effectively:…

Googlitis, the overreliance on search engines for research and the resulting development of poor searching skills, is a recognized problem among today's students. Google is not an effective research tool because, in addition to encouraging keyword searching at the expense of more powerful subject searching, it only accesses the Surface Web and is…

Providing students with historical documents as the basis for research projects motivates students; allows the instructor to tailor research topics to student interests; provides the building blocks for detailed, factual investigation and analysis; and helps develop student confidence. Students also enjoy it. (MSE)

Literature and liberal arts college students' early research experience usually stresses methodology and is carefully structured and supervised. In advanced work, students must begin to develop habits of critical thinking, personal involvement with their material, and development of a metacritical attitude. (MSE)

Describes a writing assignment in which students are required to research, individually, an aspect of their college and present results as an alumni magazine article. A second, collaborative assignment brings the class together to write about a significant campus issue. Benefits include better knowledge of the college, its programs, and its…

Explores how community-based undergraduate research undertaken within the structure of a learning community fulfills some of the best practices of undergraduate education as it encourages both problem-based learning and civic engagement. (EV)

This paper describes a campus survey designed to enhance student learning while generating high-quality data for research and evaluation. Students enrolled in a research methods course pretest a draft interview schedule and interview randomly selected students; then, drawing on their interview experience, they write a paper that addresses…

Students from the University of Montevallo, Alabama's public liberal arts university, re-created the Battle of Shiloh (April 6-7, 1862) approximately twenty miles north of Corinth, Mississippi. For ten weeks in a classroom environment, nineteen students studied strategy, operations, and tactics that affected events nearly 143 years prior. Then,…

With resource-based learning projects, college students at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science develop a better sense of the information resources available, the nature of scientific literature, and the characteristics of scientific writing. Faculty motivations, benefits, and disappointments with this approach are addressed.…

A college history teacher describes a student research project on World War II involving archival newspaper research, interviews with older adults, and comparing perceptions of the individuals interviewed with news reports. Group decision making was involved, students benefitted from exposure to others' personal war experiences, and student…