The Power and Promise of Early Research

Undergraduate research is a uniquely American invention. The ability to enter a laboratory and to embrace the unknown world, where a discovery is just around the corner, is a transformative experience. Undergraduate research, when done right, creates an authentic research project which changes the individual who is doing the research. Early introduction to authentic research captures student interest and encourages them to continue with their studies.

The difficulty of undergraduate research is scale. To be truly authentic, and thus transformative, emerging scholars in the lab need to be guided by experts who clearly care for their junior collaborators. This apprenticeship model is time consuming, absolutely essential, and difficult to scale. To provide more authentic research experiences to students, dedicated teachers have developed the idea of course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs).

This book offers a comprehensive overview of how authentic, early research is a strategy for student success. Dr. Desmond Murray and his co-authors demonstrate the importance of early introduction to authentic research for all students, including those that are most likely to be left out during the normal sink-or-swim research university science curriculum.