{"id":171030,"date":"2021-04-05T07:25:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T11:25:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=171030"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:00:29","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:00:29","slug":"for-undergraduates-early-research-experience-pays-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/04\/for-undergraduates-early-research-experience-pays-off\/","title":{"rendered":"For Undergraduates, Early Research Experience Pays Off\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sarah Swetz and Cambria Andrews entered physiology and neurobiology 3294 as freshmen, they knew little about biological research and genetics. But after four semesters, they and their peers can detail the various parts and functions of a developing hand down to the genes that program patterning, padding, and cell division.<\/p>\n

Getting involved in research as an undergraduate can be daunting, but students across the\u00a0sciences, social sciences and humanities in the\u00a0College of Liberal\u00a0Arts and Sciences are making discoveries and getting published with the help of research programs and faculty mentors.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the main problems with immersing students in research experience too early is that you can\u2019t dump too much on them at once,\u201d says\u00a0Rahul\u00a0Kanadia, associate professor of physiology and\u00a0neurobiology. \u201cWhile creating this course, we had to figure out a balance of incrementally introducing and getting them invested in this research.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018LEAP\u2019 into Research\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The course is part of a program designed by Kanadia and his graduate student Kyle Drake to initiate freshmen into advanced laboratory research, called \u201cLearning by Experiencing and Applying Principles\u201d (LEAP).<\/p>\n

\"Cambria
Cambria Andrews \u201923 (CLAS), a student in \u201cFranklin House,\u201d wears a face mask during an in-person Learning by Experiencing and Applying Principles class. (Bri Diaz\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe idea is that if students learn by trying and failing, they learn more than if they just take an exam,\u201d\u00a0Kanadia\u00a0says.<\/p>\n

Each of the\u00a0twenty students\u00a0in the course\u00a0choose\u00a0a\u00a0gene,\u00a0to study for the duration of the semester. They are\u00a0then\u00a0sorted into one of four teams, styled after the\u00a0Harry Potter<\/em>\u00a0houses\u00a0and named after scientists, where they learn how each\u00a0gene\u00a0functions\u00a0with other genes in the developing mouse limb.<\/p>\n

A unique feature of the class is\u00a0that\u00a0students\u00a0learn from each other as well as their professor.\u00a0Freshmen\u00a0are\u00a0mentored by\u00a0sophomores,\u00a0which,\u00a0Kanadia\u00a0says,\u00a0solidifies a sense of belonging and mentorship.\u00a0Students\u00a0make discoveries about their chosen gene by learning to ask the right questions as a scientist.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompared to a biology freshman lecture and lab, you have different learning opportunities here,\u201d says Cambria Andrews \u201923 (CLAS), a student in\u00a0(Rosalind)\u00a0Franklin\u00a0house, who studies fibroblast growth factor 8, a gene that promotes cell division. \u201cOthers not in this class are figuring out how to get independent research or get into a lab, but we\u2019re given tips and mentoring for that throughout this class.\u201d<\/p>\n

By examining the genes\u00a0of a\u00a0mouse\u2019s developing limb,\u00a0the\u00a0groups\u00a0learn\u00a0how\u00a0tissues\u00a0along\u00a0an axis of a limb,\u00a0such as the shoulder to the\u00a0fingers,\u00a0grow and\u00a0form\u00a0patterns, to become the size and shape they need to be in the adult\u00a0form.<\/p>\n

Each\u00a0house\u00a0chooses a common\u00a0part\u00a0of the animal, such as the\u00a0hand\u2014and each student studies a gene relating to the development and patterning of that limb\u00a0and presents a final report on how their gene works.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy end of the spring semester of their first year they have to come up with a hypothesis about what the gene does,\u201d Kanadia says.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cAnd in the following fall, they get to do an experiment to test the hypothesis they came up with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a hidden treasure of\u00a0a\u00a0course, because a lot of freshman and sophomore biology courses are huge lectures,\u201d says Sarah Swetz \u201923 (CLAS). \u201cYou don\u2019t get to know the people around you or study one thing for an extended period. I feel like I can rely on the people in my house and reach out to them, and even the others in other houses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swetz, who studies what\u2019s called a \u201csonic hedgehog gene\u201d in\u00a0(Barbara)\u00a0McClintock\u00a0house,\u00a0recently got\u00a0accepted into a lab\u00a0research position\u00a0at UConn Health, where she will study\u00a0strokes and developing novel drug treatments for ischemic stroke.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can honestly say I would not have been able to do that without this course,\u201d\u00a0Swetz says. \u201cI could tell they were very impressed with everything I’ve learned up to this point because it\u2019s not typical for\u00a0freshmen or sophomores to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Faculty-Mentored Research\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Like her peers studying biology, political science\u00a0and human rights\u00a0major\u00a0Shanelle Jones \u201921 (CLAS)\u00a0also recognized the\u00a0advantage of early college research experience.<\/p>\n

\"A
Shanelle Jones ’21 (CLAS) (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The summer before her freshman year at UConn,\u00a0Jones\u00a0applied for a research assistantship, and spent her first\u00a0semester\u00a0studying\u00a0the national public policy job market with Veronica Herrera, associate professor in the political science department.\u00a0Her work even resulted in a research publication.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked the balance of guidance and independence that came with the position,\u201d Jones says. \u201c[Herrera] taught me a lot about how to use UConn Library resources to my advantage, like the inter-library loan system and what websites are available for academic articles. Seeing my name listed on that paper a year or so after also helped me feel like I was contributing in some small way to help advance the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

The work gave her the\u00a0experience and confidence to apply\u00a0for a\u00a0UConn IDEA Grant<\/a>\u00a0to bring awareness to the West Indian immigrant experience in Hartford, Connecticut.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to\u00a0hone in on\u00a0the West Indian experience because I’m West Indian,\u201d Jones says. \u201cI grew up in Hartford around West Indians, and I think there\u2019s a lot of culture and experience there not yet studied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many West Indian immigrants struggle to secure visas, Jones found, or they arrive on an H-1B visa for employment and get stuck working with one employer who controls their wages, hoping that employer will file for their green card.<\/p>\n

In Associate Professor of Political Science Virginia Hettinger\u2019s 2998 course on political inquiry, Jones published an peer-reviewed paper on factors that affect Americans\u2019 opinions on immigration. Hettinger also inspired Jones to apply for the IDEA Grant to complete her thesis.<\/p>\n

With the skills she learned in her Hettinger\u2019s class, Jones designed her current\u00a0study\u00a0using survey responses and oral\u00a0histories\u00a0collected from\u00a0West Indian immigrants.<\/p>\n

Combining the model minority theory and\u00a0the theory of downward assimilation, which\u00a0predicts\u00a0a\u00a0downward\u00a0economic trend\u00a0for immigrants after arriving in the United States, Jones seeks to compare the immigration and economic experiences of West Indians in Hartford to African Americans.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Jones\u2019s goal is to donate the oral histories of those who agreed to UConn\u2019s archives of the West Indies in Hartford, to highlight some of the many racial and economic issues that they\u2019ve faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy overall goal is to bring more awareness or knowledge of the West Indian immigrant experience,\u201d Jones says.<\/p>\n

The Right Time for Research<\/strong><\/p>\n

When asked to explain her research, Pavitra\u00a0Makarla\u00a0\u201921 (CLAS) uses the TV sitcom \u201cThe Office\u201d as an example.<\/p>\n

\"
Pavitra Makarla ’21 (CLAS) (Contributed photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cFor my thesis, I study individual differences in sarcasm between a U.K. and U.S. population,\u201d she says. \u201cPersonally, I can’t get through The Office U.K., which is partially why I was so interested in it. A lot of people who love The Office U.S. try the U.K. version and find that the humor and use of sarcasm is so different.\u201d<\/p>\n

Makarla, who majors in cognitive science with\u00a0minors\u00a0in neuroscience and psychological sciences, studies the use of\u00a0sarcasm\u00a0with\u00a0Gitte\u00a0Joergensen, a post-doctoral\u00a0fellow\u00a0in psychological sciences professor Gerry Altmann\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I tell people about what I study, they are surprised to learn that you can connect sarcasm to neurological diseases,\u201d says\u00a0Makarla. \u201cBut many\u00a0researchers in this field\u00a0are currently studying sarcasm in relation to Parkinson\u2019s disease,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that there is a deficit in social cognition abilities, like perceiving sarcasm, in the earlier stages of Parkinson\u2019s disease, as seen by recent literature. We hope that we can further expand on this research in different sub-populations.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her freshman and sophomore years at UConn,\u00a0Makarla\u00a0knew she wanted to get involved in research as early as possible.<\/p>\n

Pavitra would email professors directly,\u00a0she says,\u00a0asking about their research,\u00a0which is how she\u00a0got into\u00a0Associate\u00a0Professor\u00a0of\u00a0Speech, Language and Hearing\u00a0Sciences\u00a0Emily\u00a0Myers\u2019 lab\u00a0her sophomore year.<\/p>\n

While working with Myers, she began assisting in writing\u00a0the\u00a0\u201cLanguage and Brain\u201d\u00a0lab digest,\u00a0a\u00a0newsletter\u00a0that summarized their work in the lab\u00a0and\u00a0makes scientific research accessible to the community at large.\u00a0 That experience\u00a0taught her\u00a0to\u00a0explain\u00a0her work to other\u00a0people, and\u00a0encouraged her to interview other scientists.<\/p>\n

Now,\u00a0Makarla\u00a0has a published\u00a0a peer-reviewed\u00a0paper quantitatively examining sarcasm\u00a0and\u00a0is working on her senior thesis.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think research has been like the beacon of light throughout my college career,\u201d she says. \u201cIt gave me transferable skills that I couldn\u2019t get elsewhere, such as public speaking at a conference and thinking on my\u00a0feet, or\u00a0writing a manuscript in a manner that other people can understand. I think the skills I have gotten here will help me when I attend medical school as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As peer research ambassador for the Office of Undergraduate Research,\u00a0Makarla\u00a0tells students that the right time to pursue research is always \u201cnow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of students are worried about whether it\u2019s too late or too early to get involved,\u201d she says. \u201cI think that people shouldn\u2019t be afraid to dive in if they\u2019re really interested, because we\u2019re a research university, and UConn has a lot of opportunities if you\u2019re willing to seek them out.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is part of a series of articles highlighting the breadth of opportunities for experiential learning, research, one-on-one guidance, or mentorship between students and faculty in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Explore more under the hashtag #DiscoverUConnCLAS. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students and faculty share the unique research opportunities that define their college experience, and how to seek out opportunities as an undergraduate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":171033,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2076,2235,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2214],"class_list":["post-171030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-research","category-today-homepage","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-19 22:24:05","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171030"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176047,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171030\/revisions\/176047"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/171033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171030"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=171030"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=171030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}