Research is one of the most important aspects of higher education, and that’s no different at Southern Utah University. However, despite its value, it’s also a frequently misunderstood activity. Not only does research help participating students expand their creativity and knowledge, it also allows the university to be recognized for its teaching efforts, which leads to benefits like increased funding and a higher ranking amongst desirable schools to attend.
“Research is a great experience for students to get involved in a research process and help the university research new topics,” said Morgan Whitaker, a student researcher at SUU.
Whether a student is studying accounting, psychology, education or engineering, they can participate in the on-campus research process. Kira Swann, another student researcher, has used her involvement to improve her time at SUU.
“It has really expanded my view on what is possible, and I love that I don’t have to study just one thing; I can study many things,” Swann said.
Research can be a great way to better the college experience. Not only do students get to further learn about things that interest them, but they can earn money while in school. But how does it work? What needs to be done to begin this aspect of education? What can students expect to face and experience once they are researching?
Steps to starting research
The first step in starting research as a student is as simple as coming up with an idea. Think of something that has piqued your interest while in a class or something you observed while going about everyday life. Anything can be researched.
Next, find a professor to either mentor you during research or to work alongside. Students can also choose whether they work on a self-led project or collaborate with peers.
Finally, write up a proposal that outlines basic information and describes your research methods. After that is complete, submit the proposal to the professor you chose to work with.
If necessary, your proposal is given to the SUU Institutional Review Board to ensure all research will be ethical. The project is sent to various endowments and grant programs after the board’s verification. Once it is approved for research and funding, you can begin your project.
Meeting current SUU undergrad researchers
Morgan Whitaker: College of Natural Sciences
Whitaker is a third-year chemistry and biology student who has been working on a project funded by the Walter Maxwell Gibson Endowment and L.S. and Aline W. Skaggs Research endowment on ruthenium catalyst chemistry for the past year and a half. However, getting to perform this research was not an easy process. He spent a month competing against other College of Natural Sciences students to get his project funded.
Whitaker is studying the metal catalyst ruthenium and its reaction with indolinestar, a common precursor to many biomolecules, in order to better understand the process. This will be done via a variety of common analysis methods. While this project is a work in progress, he has already found the robustness of the reaction, meaning that the reaction can proceed under a variety of conditions and with various reactants.
“Ruthenium is an understudied metal, especially as a catalyst,” Whitaker said. “There are not many currently known industrial applications for ruthenium, but this research could help find them in the future.” The potential for future use of Whiatker’s research is one of his main motivators to keep researching these lesser-known topics.
Kira Swann: School of Business
Swann is a senior majoring in economics and double-minoring in math and finance at the Dixie Leavitt School of Business. She has been performing her HEAL Labs-funded research for the past three months, digging into the effects of long-term substitute teachers on child education in California. She decided to propose and start this research after thinking about her real-life experience of having a long-term substitute teacher and feeling like she fell behind academically as a result.
“There is potential that there is a rise in long-term substitutes, and hopefully my paper can be used to help the issue,” Swann said.
On top of helping future researchers, Swann says that there are other great benefits of performing her research. “ Research adds so much to our portfolios, and it also makes us seem more interesting to employers,” she noted.
Using publicly available information, Swann has conducted literature reviews and found that there are mixed opinions on effects of long-term substitutes. She has also been running economic regressions to find information about economic impacts. It seems so far that long-term substitutes do have an impact on education, but economically, there is low impact. However, the research is early in development, so there could be economic impacts found in the future.
SUU has great students like Whitaker and Swann going above and beyond their studies in the classroom to do research. The great thing about the process is that it’s not exclusive to any major or minor. As the university continues to grow, so too should opportunities for students to research and learn outside the classroom.
Author: Jacob McQueary
Photos: Dani Nikolashin, Ericka Marchant and Kaitlyn Brian
Editor: Kale Nelson
life@suunews.net
This article was originally published in the March 2024 edition of the University Journal.
