McMaster launches new research-focused courses for undergraduates

Faculty of Science introduces five new courses, giving first- and second-year students an early introduction to research

The Faculty of Science is introducing five new research-based courses, developed by the faculty’s Office of Undergraduate Research. These pass/fail credit courses will be available starting in May 2025.

Established in 2023 with support from the Office of the Provost’s Strategic Alignment Fund as a three-year pilot, the OUR aims to enhance undergraduate research opportunities in the early stages of science students’ academic careers. The OUR is primarily focused on providing opportunities for first- and second-year students.

The five courses will be open to first- and second-year students in the Faculty of Science. The first-year courses include SCIENCE 1SC1: Graduate Student Shadowing, SCIENCE 1SB1: Science Research Volunteer and SCIENCE 1SA1: Science Seminar.

Second-year students can enroll in SCIENCE 2SA1, 2SB1, 2SC1: Scientific Research Skills Workshop as well as SCIENCE 2SG1: Scientific Research Group. In this course, groups of five students will participate in 12 hours of a hands-on experiential research project under the supervision of a professor.

Professor Sunita Nadella, a professor in the Faculty of Science and the experiential programming and outreach manager for the OUR, said these courses were inspired by students who expressed difficulties in securing research placements in their third and fourth years.

“. . . The Strategic Alignment Fund aims to increase the number of research opportunities for all science students, with a particular focus on creating pathways so that students can get involved with research early in their academic journey, like in first and second year. This way, when they do come to third and fourth year and are looking for research placements, they have a skill set,” said Nadella.

She noted that the skills these courses aim to build are intended to make students more competitive and appealing to research supervisors for project or thesis opportunities.

Since the launch of the OUR, the first summer research opportunities for first- and second-year students were offered in summer 2024. Nadella noted that there were 17 available projects and around 450 applications, highlighting strong demand and enthusiasm for research among students.

Feedback following the summer research opportunities has been consistently positive, with the graduate student shadowing program—where students are paired with graduate-student mentors in research—being particularly successful. Participation from graduate students continues to grow.

Although the summer research program was successful, Nadella pointed out that it only provided opportunities for a select few students. As a result, the OUR has sought ways to extend this experience to a broader group.

“We had been offering seminars and workshops before, so we decided to combine them into courses so that students could earn course credits and we could allocate our limited funds more effectively towards resourcing these workshops,” said Nadella.

One of the new courses, SCIENCE 1SA1, is a science seminar that features research seminars offered by departments within the Faculty of Science.

“As science researchers, we know that most undergraduate students often think of research as something that happens in the lab. However, for those of us within the research field, attending seminars is a critical component. It’s where you learn about the latest developments in science, how researchers generate questions and the process they go through to identify the right questions for their research projects,” said Nadella.

The five new courses will be available starting in May 2025. For more information on the OUR, visit their website.