Resources for Designing Undergraduate Research Experiences

By Julia Sepúlveda, Program Associate, CRA-E

Well-scoped projects can help you advance your research, improve your leadership capabilities and promote the development of your mentees. But designing undergraduate research projects can be difficult and time consuming – especially, if you are inexperienced. 

Earlier this year, the UR2PhD team led a presentation and discussion on “Designing Well-Scoped Undergraduate Research Projects.” The workshop provided suggestions and insights for engaging undergraduates in both new and existing projects. In addition to providing examples for how to create and stitch student projects together, the team fielded questions about student experiences, unique situations, and negotiating meaning. At the end of the session, the team shared a worksheet with guided questions on how to plan a project, set deliverables, and map needs.  A completed version of that worksheet was also provided for the example project from the presentation. 

The full recording of the workshop, the slides, and the worksheets can be accessed on the UR2PhD webpage. We encourage anyone who works with undergraduates to review the resources and share them broadly with anyone who may benefit from them.