91探花

Jim Gawel: Mentoring undergraduates in research

If current projections hold, recent graduates may change jobs ten times or more in their lives, and may work in careers that don鈥檛 yet exist.^1,2Experience in academic research will help students meet these challenges, because the ability to reinvent oneself is essentially a research skill. Faculty throughout the UW鈥檚 three campuses are working to involve not just graduate students, but also undergraduates in academic research projects that can help them build critical skills, such as the ability to gather, analyze, and synthesize complex information on a new topic; to determine needs for new knowledge; and then to help create that knowledge. Working on real-world problems with faculty mentors also helps students build the confidence that they, too, can make an impact. 91探花faculty such as Jim Gawel treat their undergraduate students as emerging professionals, supporting them as they experience what it means to contribute to a scholarly field and to the community.

Jim Gawel engages his students in research at 91探花Tacoma by explicitly linking academic work to the world outside the classroom. In addition to providing opportunities for study abroad and service learning, Gawel also creates assignments in his environmental science classes that result in real-world products with clear benefits for residents of Washington state. Here are some of his suggestions for class assignments:

Structure assignments to produce real-world results: Gawel sets up projects for end users who need the data students can provide, such as a report on possible green projects for 91探花Tacoma鈥檚 Facilities Services team, or a study for the local parks department. 鈥淎mazingly, even though students care about their grade, they couldn鈥檛 care less what I think about their project,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 find that if they know that it鈥檚 going to somebody outside the university, or even someone in another department of the university, they end up paying a lot more attention to what they鈥檙e doing, and in the process, they actually learn the material better.鈥�

Show undergraduate researchers that they can make an impact: Students not only contribute to Gawel鈥檚 projects, which often result in journal publications, but they also conduct their own studies with real-world impact. For example, his undergraduates have conducted studies of water quality in western Washington lakes. Because the state has cut lake-monitoring programs due to budget concerns, this undergraduate research fills an important need. 鈥淚n some cases we鈥檝e done studies that we deliver to the parks, but often citizen groups use our data to try to get action from the state or parks,鈥� says Gawel. 鈥淲e try to deliver to people that matter, but a lot of times it鈥檚 folks we didn鈥檛 even think about who end up getting a hold of our reports via Google and contacting me later.鈥�

Resources: Past projects by Gawel鈥檚 students are described in the 2012 91探花Tacoma report 鈥� have covered the public health implications of heavy-metal contamination in Washington lakes, as reported in studies co-authored by Gawel and his students.

¹Bridgstock, Ruth. 鈥淭he Graduate Attributes We鈥檝e Overlooked: Enhancing Graduate Employability Through Career Management Skills.鈥� Higher Education Research & Development 28, no. 1 (March 2009): 31鈥�44. doi:10.1080/07294360802444347.

²Stacey, Robert. 鈥淔rom the Dean: Changing Enrollments Reflect the Times.鈥� Perspectives Newsletter: College of Arts and Sciences, 91探花, May 2013. .

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