Embedding Undergraduate Research in an Anthropology Curriculum

We strive to provide our students with applied and transformational experiences to strengthen and crystallize the coursework within our disciplines and prepare students to conduct research in their later undergraduate years, graduate school, and careers. One of our greatest challenges as educators is training students to conduct research within the constraints of college and department-level requirements and subject to faculty teaching loads and the need for faculty buy-in. I have designed a system for embedding high-impact educational practices and transformational experiences in a stepwise process throughout an undergraduate anthropology curriculum. I support using community-based projects as the vehicle for training students to design and carry out collaborative research, after which they can mentor other students to further refine their training and/or take an upper-level course that results in a proposal for a capstone research project. Materials for four courses are included, along with assessment tools for measuring student mastery/growth/development. The courses involved are a research design seminar, a methods seminar, a research proposal course, and a seminar on mentoring research design or methods. Suggestions for adjusting faculty workloads are offered. My hope is to (1) provide educators with a ready-made program; (2) demonstrate its feasibility to faculty and its value to students, faculty, and community; and (3) encourage departments to use the tools presented or design their own using these as a template.