|
|
|
For immediate
release:
September 10, 2000
|
CONTACT:
|
Mary
Ann Hill
(781) 283-2373
|
PROFESSOR MARY
ALLEN EXTOLS
THE JOYS OF UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH
IN SECOND ANNUAL DISTINGUISHED FACULTY
LECTURE
WELLESLEY, Mass. --
Hello and welcome to Wellesley to the Class of 2004.
Yours is the first class to begin studies in the new
Millennium, and yours is the class starting college in
Wellesley's 125 anniversary year!
As I thought about what I, as a
faculty member, would like to say to you about the
significance of academics and what college is all about, I
decided to talk about the importance of intellectual
passion. I believe that the most important thing you can
find during your time at Wellesley is something you are
passionate about. I'm going to tell you about something that
I am passionate about, which is undergraduate research -- in
all areas of the liberal arts.
I want to make it clear at the
outset what I'm talking about when I say "undergraduate
research". A very good definition developed a few years ago
by faculty at a conference of the national Council on
Undergraduate Research is that undergraduate research is "an
inquiry or investigation conducted by an undergraduate that
makes an original intellectual or creative contribution to
the discipline". I'm not talking about giving undergraduates
predigested research experiences with right and wrong
results. I'm talking about Wellesley undergrads, working
with faculty colleagues to explore and extend the frontiers
of human knowledge through bona fide research into unknown
territory. I'm talking about a student whose research is
presented at a national or international meeting in her
discipline. I'm talking about a student whose work is
published in referred international journals. In other
words, in my field, I'm talking about Wellesley students
functioning as scientists in the fullest sense.
I was an undergraduate studying
chemistry at a large research university when I discovered,
through a summer of mentored research, that I truly loved
the excitement of discovering something new through
research. I spent a summer driving around the state of
Wisconsin in a University van, collecting large volumes of
lake water, then taking them back to the lab and analyzing
them and trying to get microbes to grow in them. It was a
totally different, and a much more engaging experience, than
sitting in lectures with 500 students and going to labs
where I followed a cookbook method with some 24 other
students. In doing research as an undergraduate, instead of
only receiving information, I was engaged actively in the
discovery and production of new knowledge, making an
original intellectual or creative contribution to the
discipline, and I loved it! And now, for the past 30 years,
I've been guiding Wellesley students in original research at
the leading edge of scientific knowledge.
Before I get more deeply into
this, I want to trace a little history of undergraduate
research in the sciences at Wellesley, since we began our
celebration of 125 years of Wellesley this week. Then I want
to talk a little about the joys of doing undergraduate
research, both for students and for faculty, and finally, I
will end with some examples of the kind of work my students
have been involved in my laboratory.
Wellesley has been at the
forefront of involving undergraduates in science since the
College was founded. When Wellesley took in its first
students in 1875, there was great emphasis on math and
science for all students. Henry Durant wished that students
would observe and reason for themselves and he insisted that
students receive practical instruction in the
Laboratory1. In 1876, an experimental physics lab
was set up, the second such laboratory in the country, and
the first for women2. Wellesley was the first
women's college to have a separate chair of botany and one
of only five colleges in the U.S. with a separate botany
department3.
Two branches of curriculum were
offered to the first students, the General or Classical
Course and the Scientific Course. Even students in the
Classical Course were required to take math in their first
two years, Chemistry as sophomores, Physics as juniors and
"Mental Science" (psychology and philosophy) as seniors.
Botany, zoology, astronomy and geology were electives for
upperclasswomen4.
The Scientific Course was
"arranged to meet the wants of teachers; to open the way for
future special study; and also to provide satisfactory
preparation for those who intend to become
physicians".5 The 1877-78 Wellesley College
Calendar went on to say "The course, as laid out, gives
opportunities for scientific study which are substantially
the equivalent of those given to young men in the best
Scientific and Technical Schools"6. Emphasis was
placed on laboratory work, but only two years of each
science were available. In 1882 Botany was the first science
in which three years of work were offered.
The emphasis on laboratory work
in the sciences early in Wellesley's history was unusual for
the times. In June, 1880, Dr. Lyman Abbot wrote in the
Christian Union wrote "Wellesley College ... is better
equipped in many respects to develop individual activity in
its undergraduates than any male college in the
land….For example, the approved method of studying
biology and botany is in most colleges to sit in a lecture
room and take notes of the instructions of a lecturer; he
tells his pupils what can be seen in a microscope and
possibly gives them an occasional glimpse of the microscopic
world through a single instrument. In the higher education
of women, as represented by WC, every student of biology and
botany has her own microscope and dissecting tools and
table."7 He went on to say "So long as WC equips
the girls for independent study in this respect better than
Harvard equips the boys, so long may we expect to hear
skepticism and see much shaking of the head at the
radicalism of the former
institution".7
In 1893 the General and
Scientific Courses were discontinued and a BA degree was
offered. Distribution requirements included a two semester
course in each of mathematics, biological sciences and
physical sciences. Undergraduate student/faculty research
was not prevalent until the 1920s; for example, the first
Honors student in Chemistry completed her work in
19258.
In the 1960s, grants from the
National Science Foundation began to allow summer
student/faculty research to be done in the sciences,
particularly in Biology and Chemistry. For the past 13
years, both the Departments of Biology and Chemistry have
had funding for student stipends and supply funds from the
National Science Foundation's Research Experiences for
Undergraduates Program. This program also brings in
undergraduates from other institutions to work with
Wellesley students and faculty in summer research. Further
funding from private sources, such as the Howard Hughes
Medical Institute, the Fairchild Foundation and the
Zimmerman Foundation, as well as from Wellesley College
itself, has allowed the numbers of students involved in
summer science research with faculty to reach its current
level of 44 students. During a typical summer, students
carry out 10 weeks of mentored research with faculty. As
well, the students participate in field trips, attend
seminars by outside speakers, tour faculty laboratories,
discuss graduate school with a panel of current graduate
students, and discuss career options with a panel of
professionals who majored in science as undergraduates. Each
student presents her work both orally in seminars to other
summer students and faculty, and in written form as posters
in a final week poster session. In recent years, a
coordinated program has been carried out between the Biology
and Chemistry programs, with Physics and CS joining this
last summer. Last summer there were also public speaking
workshops for the student participants, and a workshop on
preparing posters.
Last summer, in addition, 17
students received stipends to work with mentors off-campus
in such locations as medical and industrial research
labs.
Using the on-campus program in
the natural sciences as a model, Wellesley began two summers
ago, with the funding of the National Science Foundation's
Award for the Integration of Research and Education (AIRE),
a summer research program for undergraduate research in the
social sciences. This last summer 16 students participated,
all presenting their research to other students and faculty
advisors in a seminar series and attending workshops on
public speaking and preparing posters.
Finally this summer, eight
students participated in a College-funded Student
Multicultural Research Program in which they carried out a
research project under the direction of a faculty advisor,
attended a series of seminars focusing on student research,
and participated in a public speaking workshop. For the
first time this summer, all 78 students on campus, working
with 46 faculty mentors, participated in a common poster
session followed by a celebratory dinner with music. The
posters are still on display in the Focus of the Science
Center, so stop by to look, if you haven't already. They are
wonderful examples of the creative power of students in a
summer of research mentored by faculty.
Students write comments on
their experiences as part of our evaluation process. Many of
these bring out the joys of undergraduate
research:
"I've learned what dedication
and patience are. Rushing only means that you may have to do
the experiment over again. I also found that science is a
field of questions and when I try to answer one, I end up
wanting to study them all."
"My summer research has
revealed to me the reward of following a research project
through subsequent stages of development. Independently
planning, executing, troubleshooting and evaluating
experiments and their results offered me a joy in lab work
not experienced through course laboratory instruction. This
personal investment drives me to continue my project as an
honors thesis."
"The most valuable aspect was
actually being immersed in lab life and seeing things
work--or, as was often the case--seeing things not work. I
believe I got a real sense of what lab life involves -- and
I love it! I really enjoy working on a project that I can be
free to be creative with."
Many of the comments of
students refer to mentoring. I want to say a little about
the importance of finding a faculty mentor. During the early
to mid-90s, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded a study at
Wellesley called "Pathways for Women in the
Sciences"9, in an attempt to understand the
factors that enhance the retention of women in science. The
Pathways project followed the Class of 1995 throughout four
years at Wellesley, by questionnaires and focus groups. It
also took data from a sample of alumnae from the classes of
1968 to 82. Among the most important factors that led women
to pursue a career in the sciences after graduation from
Wellesley were
1. having a mentor and
2. an undergraduate research
experience.
Some of the important parts of
the undergraduate research experiences, which were
emphasized by those surveyed, were that
1. experience in using tools
and equipment allows students to feel familiar and
comfortable with them;
2. experience in doing
experiments and taking responsibility to follow a project
from start to finish builds self-confidence and self esteem.
It also allows students to take themselves seriously;
3. learning to analyze results,
organize ideas and learn from failures is important;
4. learning to be a
professional by sharing work allows students to feel the
inclusive part of science.
Engagement in science, for both
the major and the nonmajor, is important in a liberal
education. I really like to read detective stories. When
people do science they carry out a type of detective work
that involves gathering evidence about the regular features
of observed natural events and formulating hypotheses (which
are intuitive guesses) to explain these regularities.
Experimental results can affect hypotheses by confirming
them, extending them, modifying them or rejecting them.
Experiments don't always work and often hypotheses need to
be rejected, but this is all part of the learning process.
And learning is intense when one is doing research. The best
way to learn science is by doing it and undergraduate
research is one of the best ways to learn in any
field.
The pleasure of finding things
out is a large part of this detective work, and it happens
in every field in the liberal arts. So far I've spoken only
about the sciences. But it applies to other fields as well:
literature, language, and the visual arts. One of the best
ways to learn is to create a writing project or a painting
or sculpture or a musical composition, under the guidance of
a mentor. These activities, too, are like detective work,
discovering a work of art where none existed
before.
I encourage you to read "The
Pleasure of Finding Things Out"10, a 1999
collection of his best interviews, speeches, lectures and
short articles by Richard Feynman, one of the greatest
physicists of the 20th century (Feynman worked on the atomic
bomb as well as receiving the Nobel Prize for his work on
the nature of the interaction between light and matter). In
this short book, Feynman shares his vision of science and
its role in society in an informal way that is addressed to
general audiences. Feynman talks about the "the kick in the
discovery", the pleasure of grasping a wonderful new concept
of how the world works. He wrote "My interest in science is
to simply find out about the world, and the more I find out
the better it is ... to find out"11.
Finally, I want to say a little
about some the problems my students and I have solved or are
trying to solve here at Wellesley. My lab works on
cyanobacteria, which are tiny organisms whose ancestors
brought oxygen to earth some three billion years ago. These
bacteria are found in just about every environment on earth,
from hot springs to antarctic snows, to the ocean, where
they are responsible for much of the photosynthesis that
takes place there. In some cases, they are even a food
source for people and animals, here being sold in an African
market, and a source of vitamins and other nutrients in
these pills.
Most scientific research is
carried out at research institutions by the collaborative
effort of professors and graduate students. From my first
publication with a Wellesley student in 1972 to our work
today, my research has been carried out in collaboration
with my undergraduate colleagues. Their enthusiasm and
ingenious approaches to research problems are very
stimulating to my research program. They are true partners
in the research and present their work both at professional
meetings and in recognized scientific publications. Students
take part in all aspects of the research process, with a
goal being the presentation and publication of results.
Currently, we use a multidisciplinary team, including
Professors Nancy Kolodny and Adele Wolfson of Wellesley's
Chemistry Department, and a number of undergraduates, the
latter working anywhere from one semester or summer to three
years in our labs, to study the effects of environmental
stresses on the growth of cyanobacteria. Working with
student and faculty collaborators on research problems of
common interest is rewarding, intellectually satisfying, and
best of all, fun. Undergraduate researchers are, more often
than not, fresher, more innovative and less inhibited as
scientists than are faculty or graduate students.
I want to show you a sampling
of undergraduate research projects done by my students, all
of which have led to meeting presentations and/or
publications.
1. Viruses infect cyanobacteria
just as they infect higher organisms. The killing of cells
by the viruses may be responsible for fluctuations in cell
growth in lakes and the ocean. Liz Small, now a physician in
Illinois, studied the infectious cycle of a cyanovirus and
published her results in a referred journal.
2. Ting Bao, from China, worked
in my lab for three years. Her work on a nitrogen storage
material in cyanobacterial cells culminated in her
presenting results at both national and international
meetings. Ting is now a 2nd year med student at Johns
Hopkins University. She is shown here with Akhila
Balasubramanian, who studied the proteins cyanobacteria make
when they are put into very hot environments, a place where
only a few of them typically grow.
3. A current student, Jean
Huang, has been working with me since the summer following
her 1st year. Jean first presented her work on the effect of
acidic environments on cyanobacterial growth at a national
meeting two years ago and she just returned from a meeting
in Barcelona, Spain where she and two other students
presented posters on their work.
Attending scientific meetings
means sharing our research with our scientific colleagues
either orally or in posters, and in informal exchanges as
well. My students are always surprised to find that they can
converse with other scientists as equals. One works hard at
these meetings, but there is also time for play as the next
slide shows -- the three students were part of an
international team in a tug of war in Spain.
My undergraduate research
students have given a great deal both to the world of
science, and to me personally. We've gotten to know one
another through our time together in the lab, and we have
often remained scientific colleagues and friends. This is
one of the greatest joys of undergraduate research. The
informal times (eating slide) are as important as the formal
times.
One of the greatest lessons
that I learned from research, and that my research students
learn, is how important it is to have something in your life
that you're passionate about. My two passions are the
research that I and my students do, and promoting the
undergraduate research experience to other faculty and
institutions as the absolutely best way to learn science.
Many of my research students become passionate about their
projects. Maybe you'll do so as well. Or maybe you'll
develop passion about a political cause, a social program,
or the work of a French impressionist painter. The important
thing is to develop a passion for something worthwhile, and
to let that passion help guide the course of your life.
Without that passion, life is just a matter of going to
school, then to work, collecting a paycheck, and going home
to watch television.
I hope you enjoy your four
years at Wellesley and that you find something you can be
passionate about, that you can share with a faculty mentor,
and that each day will open up new ways of finding things
out. Thank you very much.
Endnotes
1Glasscock, Jean,
Ed., Wellesley College 1875-1975: A Century of Women,
(Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 1975), 126.
2Glasscock,
127
3Palmieri, Patricia
Ann, In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at
Wellesley, (Yale University Press: New Haven, 1995),
174.
4Palmieri, 12;
Glasscock, 126.
5Glasscock,
127.
6Glasscock,
127.
7Glasscock,
129.
8Kolodny, Nancy H.,
Darlington, Jeanne A., Mann, Helen C., and Webster, Eleanor
R. 125 Years in the Chemistry Department at Wellesley
College: 1875-2000, (Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA, 2000,
xeroxed), 18.
9Rayman, Paula and
Brett, Belle, Pathways for Women in the Sciences, Part 1,
(Wellesley College, Center for Research on Women, Wellesley,
MA, 1993).
10Feynman, Richard
P. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, (Perseus Books,
Cambridge, MA, 1999).
11Feynman,
23.
###
|
