Students Share their Research Experiences:

My research experience at St. Kate's was very positive and I would highly recommend that students pursue directed research. It can be a great stepping stone to higher education goals or a way of narrowing down academic interests. It has been my experience that professors are very receptive to students' research ideas, especially if the project is related to their own area of expertise. I liked having the independence to ask and follow up on the questions I was interested in and being able to take more responsibility for the research than I had been able to do in my lab classes. . . Through my research experience at St. Kate's I was able to present in multiple venues, including a poster at the American Malacological Society conference in Seattle last summer. My directed research also led to my decision to apply to graduate school, which resulted in my acceptance into the Zoology PhD program at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.


My experiences of participating in research at St. Kate's have been transformative. I have grown as a student and a researcher, but most importantly, I have gathered a more powerful understanding of my place in this dynamic world. St. Kate's encourages a collaborative, integrative and passionate approach to research. I am confident that as I continue doing research, I will integrate these research approaches into my own studies so as to bring valuable knowledge to others and to also continue in my own personal growth.

While it is certainly a challenge to keep a research agenda percolating along at a teaching college such as ours, I have found the rewards of scholarship to be many. First among these is the stimulation and fun of working alongside my female students on novel and rigorous science. In my experience, women who have chosen to take on a task together tend to form instant communities. It's not an uncommon workday in my lab to have a few students simultaneously solving the scientific (How will we fix the 1980-vintage computer that blew up this morning?) and personal (Is Jane really ready to move in with her boyfriend/girlfriend?) problems of the day. These women work hard and resourcefully, and they help keep me up-to-date (I am now an avid text and instant messager!). . . Through feedback and experience, my student collaborators gain transferable skills from participating fully in the research process: designing protocols, recruiting (and retaining!) experimental subjects, collecting and analyzing data and presenting results to the scientific community.
We make this a better educational environment for our students by being involved in research, which stimulates us to keep abreast of our field, can provide research opportunities for students, and makes us a model for the scholarly life. It is important that we can offer upper level students opportunities for quality research experiences. Having a strong research program makes them much more likely to pursue higher degrees and to be successful in research-based pursuits. Research is also a key component of the Biology department curriculum.

Student-faculty collaborative research enhances student learning and also benefits faculty. Student-faculty collaborative research provides:

• Enhanced student confidence in their abilities to use scientific articles as tools. Rather than passively receiving protocols, students access literature pertinent to their project and gradually make sense of it. Doing their lab work in the context of published information, they gain appreciation for the complexities of experimental design, develop critical modes of questioning, and take a more cautious approach to interpretation of experimental results.
• A significant payoff in student learning and vitalization of faculty research. Students come up with questions and approaches that enrich faculty thinking and work enthusiastically on the projects. They see the projects as “real life research” and are excited by the potential of making original contributions to the scientific community. This fosters a stronger research environment in the Biology department while research skills and aptitudes are being developed in students.

It has been a joy working with my students on a summer research project. Both of my research assistants are passionate about the topic and have graduate school in their future agenda. What an excellent combination for a research assistant! This experience has not only given them a taste of how a research project is conducted, it has also provided me with a valuable experience. I was able to be a mentor who works closely with the students, and be a role model who shares my passion and love of research with them.