Undergraduate research course student info
Course description
For laboratory or academic research performed under the mentorship of a faculty member. Registration is by permission only. Note that all students enrolling in an Undergraduate Research course for the first time must also take Introduction to Research Practice.
Learning outcomes
As part of their undergraduate research experiences, students will be able to:
- Collect and analyze data.
- Read, comprehend, integrate, and evaluate neuroscience-related scientific literature.
- Understand how their research contributes to broader scientific questions.
- Communicate effectively about neuroscience to both specialized and broad audiences.
Course expectations for students
The time commitment students are expected to make will vary by the number of credits that students are taking. As a general guide, one hour of course credit = three hours of commitment/week on average.
Research documentation
Students are required to provide some documentation of their research experience to both their course Canvas site and to their mentor in order to receive credit for the course. This can be accomplished in one of the following ways:
- Present a scientific poster as the first author at a conference or research event. Students will submit an 8-inch by 11-inch copy of their poster, along with details of the conference/event.
- Present a slide talk at a conference or meeting. Students will submit copies of their slides and the text of their talk. Slides can be submitted as a pdf (4 slides per page) printed from the presentation software (such as PowerPoint). Text should be submitted as a pdf document.
- A written summary (or reflection) of the research. It is assumed that students will achieve varying amounts of success in their projects, both due to time limits as well as the challenges of scientific research. Instructions for completing this paper appear are below.
Guidelines for writing the reflection
- The report should be double-spaced with one-inch margins and no longer than 1500 words (five pages).
- The report should be turned in to both your research mentor and submitted to Canvas by the final day of classes of the semester in which you enrolled for credit.
The report should include the following sections:
1) Title
The title should reflect your particular role in the research project.
2) Personal goals
Describe why you chose this particular laboratory, and what your personal goals were when entering this experience.
3) Overall aim of the research project
Provide a brief overview of the entire research project in which you are participating. What is the overall goal of the project? One way to address this is to summarize the specific aims of a research grant that is funding the project.
4) Your role in the project
Describe your specific role in the project. How are you contributing to the overall research aims of the project? Outline the experimental approach you followed, including the techniques you learned and used. Also describe other lab-related activities you may have engaged in, such as your role in planning of experiments, attending lab meetings, reading research articles, etc.
5) Results
The results you obtained during the course of the project should be described here. What results did you expect, and what results did you obtain? If these differ, describe the possible reasons for not getting the expected results. Note here if your research contributed to a conference presentation or a paper for the laboratory.
6) Discussion
Reflect upon what you have experienced and learned throughout your time in the laboratory. What did you learn from your experiences? What challenges did you face, and how did you meet them? How would you improve what you did? How have your ideas changed as a result of this experience?
Note on citations and plagiarism
Make sure to properly cite any published research you discuss in your work. All work will be checked for plagiarism, which is the act of presenting as your own work another individual's ideas, words, data, or research material. This includes altering the language, paraphrasing, omitting, and rearranging words to make them appear as your own. All forms of academic misbehavior are prohibited at Wayne State University, as defined in the Student Code of Conduct.