Six undergraduate students were recently named as the recipients of the first Undergraduate Research Grant awards at LSSU. Funding
for the grants was provided by a private donor through the LSSU Foundation. The award is competitive and meant to help fund the
student’s undergraduate senior research project. Currently, the award is capped at $500 per project, so up to six students may receive
awards each semester for three years. If the Undergraduate Research program is successful, the Foundation hopes to raise further funds to
continue it into the future.
The deadline to apply for the spring semester funds is Feb. 4. Details on the program may be found clicking here. "The grants help our
students fund research projects that may otherwise not be able to be completed because of the costs associated with research," says
Dr. Barb Keller, Dean of the College of Natural, Mathematical and Health Sciences and also the Chair of the Undergraduate Research
Committee that awards these grants. "Recipients of this round of grants will use the funding to complete research in the biological sciences,
environmental health, and the performing arts." Undergraduate research has always been a vital part of the student experience at LSSU.
In fact, the University mission and vision statements emphasize its role in helping students develop their full potential, as well as contributing
to the growth, dissemination and application of knowledge beyond campus. Students who graduate from Lake State must first demonstrate
and apply their knowledge in the form of a senior project that is evaluated by fellow students and faculty. Many of these projects become
posters and papers presented at professional conferences.
Open sessions held on campus each semester share research results with the public as well. "For many students, a senior thesis project is
their first pass through rigorous university-level research," says Keller. "Now we add another first-time opportunity by making an
undergraduate research grant available. The selection process itself provides our students with skills that may not only fund, but steer the
research they go on to conduct as graduates."
LSSU's undergraduate research grant application process has students define their project's timeline and submit a detailed accounting
for materials and supplies, printing costs, software, project-related travel, and other related expenses excluding student wages. Each line
item also requires a formal justification as to how it relates to the project's final outcome. Student applicants must also disclose other
potential funding sources, be they departmental, state, or local - even expenses covered out of pocket. Finally, if animal or human test
subjects are part of the study, a full research plan must be submitted to faculty oversight committees that verify certain standards of laboratory
care and research ethics.
This semester's inaugural grant recipients explore a variety of relevant issues that range from the effect of "Cat Lady's Disease" on mouse brains,
to what could be a ground-breaking study on how a bacterium has an impact on salmon aquaculture operations in the Great Lakes.
Further information regarding undergraduate research grants is available here. |
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