B CUSP 290 A: Research In Action

Winter 2015 B CUSP 290 A: Research in Action

 Meeting time: Fridays 11:00am to 1:00 pm

Class Instructor: Ronnie Thibault

Professor of Record: Charlotte Rasmussen

Meeting room: UW1-031                                                      

Office Hours in the Student Success Center: UW1-188                                                                   

Phone: Ronnie Thibault

 

Ronnie Thibault Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00 am to 1:00pm and Fridays 10:00 am-11:00 am and 1:00-2:00 pm or by appointment

E-mail contact Ronnie Thibault: ronnie22@uw.edu 

Charlotte Rasmussen: rasmuc@uw.edu

Library B CUSP 290 Course Guide: http://libguides.uwb.edu/bcusp290thibault (Links to an external site.). 

 

Course Description

 

UWB provides many opportunities for its undergraduate students to engage and practice research across disciplines and areas of study. This course will highlight research in practice across our campus and demonstrate opportunities for student involvement through faculty-assistantships, faculty-mentored independent projects, community-based participation, collaborative inquiry and in-course research opportunities and introduce multidisciplinary research approaches, practices, methods and projects.

Our weekly class meetings consists of research seminars and workshops facilitated by UWB faculty and students involved in undergraduate research, followed by class discussions and activities designed to help you develop skills to become successful scholars, researchers, communicators, and writers. This course will provide the opportunity to learn about the wide variety of research, scholarship and creative activities conducted by faculty and students on the UW Bothell campus and the workshops are designed to demonstrate how your engagement in undergraduate research will help you build academic and professional skills. 

This interactive student-focused class offers ample opportunities to engage with UWB faculty, students, and graduates about their research in an informal setting. After completing this course you will have a greater awareness of the opportunities and resources across our campus dedicated to supporting undergraduate research and the benefits participating in undergraduate research will bring to your future academic and professional endeavors.

 

Learning Goals

 

• gain an understanding of research practices across disciplines and sectors by interacting with faculty members, students and alumni in conversations about their research

• learn to extract information from a research presentation and create an abstract, outline or summary.

• identify and outline basic research processes including research inquiry, literature review, methods, analytical design, results, summary, and conclusion.

• develop critical thinking skills by formulating questions, participating in online and in-class discussions and hands-on activities relating to research practices and methods

• create a plan to incorporate research into your educational experience

 

Method of Instruction

 

Faculty, student, and professor facilitated workshops and seminars followed by methods workshops, activities and class discussion.

Recommended Preparation Interest in learning about research methods, practices and processes and participating in the knowledge-making process. 

 

Assignments and Grading

 

 

20% Participation 

This is an interactive course and since we meet only once a week it is crucial you are in class and ready to participate in the workshops, discussions and guest presentations. Your participation grade will reflect your level of engagement with the reading assigned for the week, your interaction during in class group exercises and workshops and your preparation for the class 'workshop article' activities. It is important to know that we do understand that participation comes in different forms and is not always evident through verbal means alone, there are various ways you can demonstrate your participation including on canvas, through in class-activities and in your discussion posts.  

 

30% Discussion Posts & Readings

 You are responsible for responding to weekly prompts in the discussion posts section of canvas. Each prompt offers complete directions and guidelines for that weeks discussion post assignment. Your posts should engage the weekly readings and reflect your understanding through at least one direct reference to the assigned reading. General background reading provided by the seminar speaker, short articles, and book chapters to develop research, writing and communication skills and to cultivate your ability to recognize the basic format, layout and structure of a wide variety of research projects and designs. Through a variety of activities, we will work together to locate, outline and summarize the methods, structure, framing and analytical design situated within an assigned weekly 'workshop' research article. All readings are a required element of the course and your level of engagement in our discussions and activities will be reflected in your weekly participation grade. It is critical that you come prepared to participate in the weekly reading discussions and activities. 

 

25% Written Assignments: Short written assignments largely in the form of abstracts, annotated bibliographies, workshop handouts and weekly message board postings.

 

25% Oral Presentations: Short in-class presentation and a final group presentation based on current research findings.

This course is offered as an OPTIONAL W COURSE. 

 

 

Access and Accommodations:  Your experience in this class is important to us, and it is the policy and practice of the University of Washington to create inclusive and accessible learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you experience barriers based on disability, please seek a meeting with DRS to discuss and address them. If you have already established accommodations with DRS, please communicate your approved accommodations to your instructor at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.  

 

Disability Resources for Students (DRS) offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities.  Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process between you, your instructor(s) and DRS.  If you have not yet established services through DRS, but have a temporary or permanent disability that requires accommodations (this can include but not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you are welcome to contact DRS at 425.352.5307 rlundborg@uwb.edu.

 

Respect for Diversity: In all contexts related to this course, students are expected to respect individual differences which may include: age, cultural background, disability, ethnicity, family status, gender presentation, national origin, personality differences, race, religious & political beliefs, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and/or veteran status. When you disagree with someone in class, please speak up, but focus your comments on the larger issues, institutions, and frameworks at hand rather than that particular person.

 

Academic integrity: 

It is sometimes difficult to negotiate the rules and regulations regarding properly citing another authors work. Please take a moment to visit  http://www.uwb.edu/studentservices/academicconduct (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for a review of UWB guidelines and rules regarding academic integrity. You can also visit the library website at http://libguides.uwb.edu/ai (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or contact one of the course facilitators for assistance. You are responsible for knowing what constitutes a violation of the University of Washington Student Code, and you will be held responsible for any such violations whether they were intentional or not.  

 

Inclement Weather. Please check if the campus may be closed due to weather. Information on the suspension of operations will be made public and available through the media. Students can learn of campus operations status from the website or by calling the Campus Information Hotline 425.352.3333. You may also sign up with an alert system that will contact you via email or text message if classes are canceled. For more information on the alert process, please see http://www.uwb.edu/alert. Class activities will be rescheduled as needed.