Re: Definition of Undergraduate Research

[brian whatcott <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>]

At 11:19 3/15/99 -0500, you wrote:
> At the risk of rehashing an old subject  -  does anybody have a good,
> concise definition of "undergraduate research".
>
> We're looking for something which is applicable across disciplines, and our
> internal discussions have devolved into the usual "I can't define it, but I
> know it when I see it."  Everybody seems to agree that it's a good thing,
> though there are some disciplines which claim that research cannot be done
> by undergraduates.  Obviously, such a stance becomes divisive rather than
> helpful.

> George Spagna

Undergraduate research is....

...undertaken during a limited time period using protocols
accessible at the appropriate learning level preferably using
simple but effective statistical measures to refine numeric
values associated with an explicit model relating physical
cause and effect (which is not disqualified if it ignores
many subtleties.)
  The instrumentation is normally not extensive nor expensive.
  The reportage is expected to show the highest level of honesty.
One hopes to see a conclusion of some kind.

(Spoken as a perpetual undergraduate)

Brian

brian whatcott <inet@intellisys.net>
Altus OK