Nearly 1,600 undergraduates presented papers at the annual conference this year, compared with 216 at the first conference, in 1987. Salisbury State had to cancel classes for two days to make room for the presentations. One reason so many undergraduates are engaged in research these days is that education experts have only recently begun to think of it as essential. If you are a Chronicle subscriber but have not registered for this free service, you may sign up online . But Ronald L. Dotterer, dean of the liberal-arts college at Salisbury State and an organizer of the conference, concedes that it can be difficult to tell the difference between a research project and, say, a challenging homework assignment.
Undergraduates have a long tradition of pursuing research projects in the sciences.
Professors, graduate students, and undergraduates often work together in the laboratory, and publish their findings as a team. Philip DeShong, a chemistry professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, has worked with undergraduates in his lab since 1984. The names of several undergraduates have appeared next to his in articles in major science journals. We don't need to pound facts into their heads. We need to teach them how to be critical thinkers, how to write well, how to present materials they've discovered for themselves, and how to not be afraid to make mistakes.