Meet the faculty members and staff across campus who make research possible for undergraduate students. Read about these innovators, get their perspective on why undergraduate research matters to them, and what they are doing to promote it.
This class not only crosses disciplinary boundaries across campus, but crosses – in fact, smashes – international lines. It’s Dr. David J. Parkinson’s (PhD) ENG113 course, and it’s a course like few others on campus.
For undergraduates who choose to major in Toxicology during their USask studies, a myriad of research opportunities exist to expand learning beyond coursework.
Creating an undergraduate research opportunity using USask’s FYRE course concept has helped students in Dr. Jessica Lieffer’s Nutrition 230 course to develop excellent research skills.
Under the City of Saskatoon-USask data sharing agreement facilitated through Research Junction, UrbanFYRE was developed by Dr. Corinne Schuster-Wallace (PhD) and Dr. Paul Hackett (PhD) for their fall Geography 130 course on environment, health and planning.
The John Howland lab (JHL) focuses on behavioral neuroscience research and is located in the Department of Anatomy, Physiology, and Pharmacology in the Health Science’s building. Howland and his students pursue a range of projects from understanding the effects of acute stress on cognition and synaptic plasticity to neurodevelopmental models of severe psychiatric illness in rodent models.
Dr. David Parkinson, of the Department of English, is a veteran professor who has embarked on a steep learning curve the past few years. Since offering a First-Year Research Experience (FYRE) in a class he taught in September 2016, Parkinson has gone on to combine FYRE with an international teaching and learning experience, the Project in International Collaborative Teaching (PICT). Parkinson works in partnership with his co-instructor, Dr. Payel Chattopadhyay Mukherjee to create a set of interconnected courses, with content provided at each location by both professors. As a result of the enriched instruction, students in Parkinson’s and Mukherjee’s classes gained a fully-integrated, international research experience without crossing borders.
Mirela David has offered First-Year Research Experiences (FYRE) since her first year of teaching at the UofS. She teaches FYRE classes in both Women’s and Gender Studies and History. From the benefits of working with research coaches to opportunities to enrich her own research, David’s experience with FYRE means it would be senseless to teach a first-year course any other way.
Since 2014, Dr. Tracie Risling’s lab has become a permanent home for undergraduate students. Every summer, Risling, faculty member in the Department of Nursing, has watched as the RisTech Lab grew from having one student, to two then three students. This summer, she will be working with a record number of six undergraduates, some new and some returning. RisTech focuses on health informatics when it meets patient empowerment and advocacy, and has become so popular among undergraduates that a waiting list has developed.
Dr. Hill, a faculty member in the Western College of Veterinary Medicine, makes a point to welcome two undergraduate students every summer, often through the Undergraduate Student Research Assistantship (USRA) programs. Regardless of their academic background, Hill finds that any student who is "willilng to learn, work hard, and be enthusiastic" could be a good fit, not just for her lab, but for any undergraduate research experience.
Dr. Laroque, a faculty member in the College of Agriculture and Bioresources, was a leader of undergraduate research before it was even a thing. Now offering First-Year Research Experiences for the fifth time, and many more higher-level research classes besides, Laroque’s participation in student-led research is simply second nature by now
How many of us have heard that research in the humanities has no "real-world" value? An emerging initiative on campus has proven that narrative wrong.
Dr. Chris Todd is a faculty member in the Department of Biology. He was awarded the Provost’s Award for Outstanding Innovation in Learning in 2013.
Read how Xulin Guo introduces research to students in her classes.
Dr. Alison Oates and Joel Lanovaz, the co- directors of the Biomechanics of Balance and Movement Lab, offer U of S undergraduate students the chance to get first-hand research experience.
