|  Admissions  |  Resources for Students  |   Resources for Faculty & Staff  |  About the Graduate School  | 

Huckabay Fellowship Announcement

Huckabay Fellowship Application

Huckabay FAQ Page

Guidelines for Huckabay Mentors

Fellows and Mentors 

Examples of Successful Proposals

Preparing Future Faculty

2004-2005 Huckabay Teaching Fellowship Application

Vivek Shandas, University of Washington
PhD Candidate, Urban Design and Planning

Fostering Undergraduate Research and Education in Community and Environmental Planning: Integrating PhD education with undergraduate research projects.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Sociological Association have called for increased participation of undergraduates in research endeavors at universities nation-wide. Specifically, undergraduate research opportunities provide a comprehensive curricular component that benefit participants, the research institute, and the state of knowledge (NCUR, 2004). At its core is the formation of a collaborative enterprise between a student who has limited experience with crafting and undertaking a research project and a well-trained researcher. Moreover, opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research enables active learning, integration of education and experience, as well as developing collaboration skills, and out-of-class contact with mentors – all leading to “outstanding undergraduate education” (Romer, 1995).

While several departments and colleges at the University of Washington provide undergraduates with research opportunities, several have yet to develop a framework for involving undergraduate in research. One such program is the Community and Environmental Planning (CEP) undergraduate program housed in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning. Students in the CEP program, by design, are exposed to and investigate real-world problems, requiring interdisciplinary, team-based learning strategies. By establishing a foundation of knowledge through a set core courses, each student completes a ‘senior project’ that entails evaluating a problem related to one or several social and environmental issues. The program uses the senior project to prepare students for academic careers and professional endeavors within the information age. However, addressing the complexities of social and environmental issues without adequate training in research design strategies, methodological techniques, or confidence in research creates formidable challenges to the completion of the degree. Accordingly, CEP faculty and administrators continue to emphasize the importance of appropriate guidance and mentorship during the development and completion of the senior project.

Housed in the same college as CEP, the Interdisciplinary PhD Program in Urban Design and Planning (UDP) focuses on addressing complex social and environmental issues relevant to urban planning. However, unlike CEP students, the students in the PhD program are involved in research projects, and spend the first two years taking courses in research design, quantitative and qualitative methods, and topical courses relevant to regional and urban planning. In addition, many PhD students aspire to begin university teaching careers after graduation but lack opportunities for teaching or mentorship in the college. We propose a collaboration with PhD students serving as research mentors for the development and implementation of CEP senior projects. This collaboration will simultaneously build bridges between programs and fill curricular gaps in both programs. Moreover, such a collaboration will trigger a four-step learning process critical to inquiry-based models and, congruently, several of its prime benefits: (1) identifying and acquiring a disciplinary or interdisciplinary methodology, (2) setting out a concrete investigative problem, (3) carrying out an actual project, and (4) sharing a new scholar’s discoveries with his or her peers (Dotterer, R., 2002).

Undertaking a novel endeavor of this kind requires specific attention to what lies at the heart of these programs, and how both programs will benefit through this collaboration. For example, given the student-centered democratic nature of CEP, and the emphasis on independent original research by the PhD program what should a successful collaboration look like? And how can we resolve the curricular requirements in both programs? Indeed, a research collaboration is more than passing on research methods from a trained researcher to an aspiring project designer; a collaboration of this type will empower undergraduates by enabling them to see themselves as researchers. Moreover, graduate students will learn the art of problem-solving in groups, the mentoring-process, and communicating complex concepts and methods to an amateur audience – skills essential to any research endeavor, but currently not part of the PhD training.

Many of these challenges in developing a cross-degree collaboration will be addressed through establishing a set of substantive and procedural questions targeted at faculty, staff, and students in both programs. Using a focus-group model, we will develop a questionnaire and conduct interviews aimed at soliciting information about general student research interests, expectations by faculty and staff, and departmental requirements that would enable participation. By conducing a content analysis of the responses we expect to assess opportunities for establishing the procedural components of this collaboration. Subsequent discussions with chairs of the departments and deans will bring to light the substantive nature of such collaboration. Specifically we intend to address questions regarding the nature of the relationship between undergrad and graduate students, issues of student preparedness, as well as identify how we would characterize a successful program (i.e. number of mentorships per year, all undergrads being mentored, etc.). Given Christopher Campbell’s academic training in qualitative methods and his familiarity with the University’s academic policies, he will be instrumental in developing the interview questionnaire, analyzing the results, and facilitating student communication. Moreover, Vivek’s active involvement in both programs as well as his responsibilities as the Steering Committee Student Representative in the Urban Design and Planning Department provide regular exposure to faculty and student, and ensures a high level of participation in the surveys.

In an open forum multiple collaboration designs will be presented to undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty in both programs. One or two collaboration designs will be selected and presented to the dean of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning for assurance of legal and administrative integrity. With any necessary changes and the dean’s approval we will assemble the administrative components for beginning the first research collaboration in Spring 2005. Success of the project will be assessed through another round of interviews conducted at the end of Spring quarter 2005. These interviews will target the graduate and undergraduate students participating in the research collaboration and identify skills learned, problems encountered, and suggested changes. We expect that the collaboration continue in perpetuity, with modifications made each year according to the success assessment.

With this proposal we posit that alliances promoting research collaborations between PhD mentors and undergraduates develop analytical and communicative skills for both sets of students, and as a by-product, creates internal networks to support community and camaraderie within the college. As described by the National Conferences on Undergraduate Research any department that motivates its students to learn through collaborative research—and can find ways to support these intellectual journeys with the necessary human and material resources—certainly does provide its students with a first-rate education (NCUR, 2004).

Bibliography

(1) Dotterer, Ronald L (2002). “Student-Faculty Collaborations, Undergraduate Research, and Collaboration as an Administrative Model.” New Directions for Teaching & Learning. n90 p81-89 Sum 2002.

(2) National Conferences on Undergraduate Research (NCUR), 2004. Web site at http://www.ncur.org.

(3) Romer, R., Ewell, P., Jones, D., and Lenth, C. (1995). Making Quality Count in Undergraduate Education. Denver: Education Commission for the States.
 

| Return to the Top |
 

 The Graduate School   G-1 Communications Building    Box 353770  
University of Washington  Seattle  WA   98195   Phone: 206-543-5900