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.

...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...

Sunita Nadella, Experiential Learning and Outreach Manager
Office of Undergraduate Research

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.

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.

Sunita Nadella, Experiential Learning and Outreach Manager
Office of Undergraduate Research

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.

Fariha Husain

The Silhouette

 

On Jan. 10, McMaster president Patrick Deane hosted a lecture, featuring guest speaker Dr. Andrew Furco, on community engagement as a part of the McMaster Seminar on Higher Learning series.

The seminars were inspired by Deane’s letter “Forward with Integrity,” and were organized to address the issues surrounding the institutionalization of education at the university level and specifically to foster the development of innovative ideas at McMaster in the realm of education, teaching and student involvement.

Furco, the Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota, looked at the increasingly significant contribution community engagement can make to the university institution and how it can translate into funding for universities.

Furco began his lecture with an statistic pertaining to the increase in service-learning (volunteering, community internships and other activities) available in American universities, which increased from 49 per cent five years ago to 90 per cent now. The increase in such community engagement opportunities stands as a testament to the resurgence of the idea that universities and colleges are institutes that exist to benefit society.

This important idea may seem obvious to many students, faculty and staff alike. Furco, however, noted that educational institutions such as the University of California at Berkley, where he was the founding director for the Service-Learning Research and Development Centre, had many world renowned experts on issues ranging from homelessness to cancer yet ust across the street from Berkley there was, and had been some for time, a growing poverty issue.

Community engagement in an educational context refers to the consolidation of educational endeavours into it’s implication for the surrounding community, which Furco referred to as the “So what?” factor. All of this research, education and training must be undertaken in order to accomplish certain goals and community engagement seems to be a way to do exactly this.

Community engagement through service-learning is certainly relevant in an institution such as McMaster which is located in the city of Hamilton, often regarded as one of the only cities where housing is cheaper when individuals move closer to the downtown core. Some of the poorest neighbourhoods in Canada can be found in Hamilton’s downtown core.

McMaster’s reputation lingers among those of world-renowned institutions and as such attracts immense talent in its students and faculty. McMaster is also situated in close proximity to some of the poorest districts in Canada, and is well equipped with the experience and skill to put forth the effort to create viable and long lasting change in order to meet the societal needs of this city.

This fundamental goal is central to McMaster’s mission, as stated, “At McMaster, our purpose is the discovery, communication, and preservation of knowledge. In our teaching, research, and scholarship, we are committed to creativity, innovation, and excellence.” McMaster students are encouraged to incorporate community engagement in their educational pursuits in order to gain the most from their experience, explained Furco.