Research program supports students with training workshops

There are programs all over UW-River Falls that are dedicated to helping students achieve academically. One group that has been here to help students with research projects or showcases is Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity (URSCA).

This program supports students who are conducting research through grant funds. URSCA also helps research by providing training workshops for students to learn how to proper conduct a research project. Each training workshop is different and can be from poster-making to research ethics to resume writing skills.

Lastly, URSCA helps students with dissemination events, which are where students take their research projects, which they have been working, and share it with the rest of the research community.

“Research isn’t considered research by the research community if the results are not shared with society,” said Director Lissa Schneider-Rebozo.

UWRF has two on-campus dissemination events, which is more than any other school in the UW System. Some schools in the UW System do not even have any dissemination event for undergraduate students. The participation for these on-campus dissemination events have “doubled, tripled and then quadrupled and quintupled participation," according to Schneider-Rebozo.

This program also sponsors the National Conference for Undergraduate Research, which is where students in the URSCA show their research findings nationally and that will be happening at the end of April.

The program offers different kinds of grants to students and one specifically to students who want to conduct research, specifically dissemination research, which are called the "Falcon Travel Grant." These grants help students who want to go to discipline specific conferences with their particular research mentor from their program or department.

Any student is welcomed to join URSCA, apply for grants and present at the events as long as they are a currently enrolled student at UWRF. Students who participate need to find a research mentor, which can be a professor, for their project.

URSCA provides a workshop that teaches students how to find a mentor. Students can either do an independent research project or with a team. Once a mentor is found and a team is built, students then write for a grant that will help them conduct their research project. After the research is conducted, they present on campus either in the spring or in the fall, and can also apply for another grant to help them present off campus.

When presenting their findings, students can either use a poster board or do a hands on. Schneider-Rebozo explained the different kinds of hands on they have had in the past.

“In our first event we had a student who had been to the Amazon studying amphibians and he brought into the University Center his collection of poison dart frogs, along with this research results and date,” Schneider-Rebozo said.

The showing of the research project is the end of this month and will have people from four colleges presenting.