Communitybased Undergraduate Research: Engaging Undergraduates in Research for the Public Good

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Community-based Undergraduate Research Engaging
Undergraduates in Research for the Public Good

• Elizabeth Paul, Ph.D.
• Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic
  Affairs
• The College of New Jersey
• bethpaul_at_tcnj.edu

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Celebration of Undergraduate Research

• Disciplinary socialization
• Acquisition of knowledge

• Side-by-side apprenticeship
• Development of critical thinking skills
  facilitative of lifelong learning and productive
  citizenship

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Trends in Higher Education

• Active/Experiential learning
• Undergraduate research
• Goals for undergraduate learning
• Teacher-scholar role
• Disciplinary mentor
• Public scholar
• Civic Engagement / Service Learning movements

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Community-based Undergraduate Research

• Research in collaboration with and in service of
  communities

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CBR at the crossroads
Real-life research partnership Personal, social,
intellectual development Role model as lifelong
learner and productive citizen Community
participation and efficacy

• Active/Experiential learning
• Undergraduate research
• Goals for undergraduate learning
• Teacher-scholar role
• Disciplinary mentor
• Public scholar
• Civic Engagement / Service Learning movements

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Shifting Relationships with Community
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Collaborating as Agents of Social Change
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Functions of Research

• Academic Research
• Curiosity/paradigm driven
• Individual/small group
• Focused
• Objective
• Knowledge driven
• Targeted communication
• Paradigm-specific language

• Community-based Research
• Practical, problem driven
• Team
• Holistic
• Partisan, Political
• Action driven
• Informing for Empowerment
• Ordinary language, public

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CBR Across the Disciplines

• Impact of the environment on local communities
• Magic Marker Brown Field Project
• Soil assays, studies of contamination impact
• Environmental Issues of Toms River, NJ
• Cancer cluster
• Studies of and plans to address watershed threats
• Lead testing in urban neighborhoods health
  screenings and education
• Leady Bear

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CBR Across the Disciplines

• Health
• Development of social-marketing campaign based on
  native evidence of needs and assets
• Study of obesity among high school youth mapping
  of area eating establishments
• Consulting on drug interactions and side-effects
  among teens in a transitional living program
• Study of county youth asthma trends

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CBR Across the Disciplines

• Oral histories of employees of West Trenton GM
  Plant (especially during WWII)
• Assessment and evaluation of youth music and
  performing arts programs
• Developing a journaling program for high-risk
  middle-school girls
• Neighborhood analysis with census data for
  community development organizations
• Community internet access and use studying ways
  to increase use of internet to facilitate greater
  involvement in community decision making

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Trenton Youth Community-based Research Corps

• Community-student-faculty research partnerships
  in service of community-identified and -defined
  needs
• Focus on inner-city youth and families
• Community needs and assets assessments
• Non-school-hour programming study
• Program evaluations
• Trenton PEERS
• Community education/information projects
• Working with adolescent Liberian refugees
• Rainbow House youths living with HIV

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Challenges of community-based undergraduate
research

• Time
• Place
• Student and faculty roles and work
• Partnership building
• Support

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Benefits of CBR

• Real-life learning
• Critical thinking
• Collaboration
• Civic engagement
• Community betterment
• Relevance of research skills
• Career exploration
• University as citizen