Q&A: Summer learning opportunities flourish

马克·霍夫曼(Mark Hofmann)在2006年至2008年担任学院副院长期间，对此特别感兴趣 发展科学和数学课程，包括指导火博体育的课程 Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is his third year at the helm of the 项目，该项目为学生提供了一个独特的机会与教师合作 original research. 

今年夏天，有51名学生和34名教师在39个不同的项目上工作 projects in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is a dramatic increase 2005年该项目有20名学生，2000年只有8名. 

Q: How do students benefit from the summer collaborative research program?

答:暑期教师/学生研究项目为学生提供了一个难得的机会 to work one-on-one with a faculty member. Students learn in a hands-on way what research in their discipline is all about. They work 40-plus hours per week and are totally immersed in their research endeavor. The benefits are both immediate and long-term. 

最令人愉快的是看到学生信心和能力的增长 the summer progresses, and to observe their high level of engagement. It really is 值得注意的是，学生们与不同学科的同龄人分享他们的经验 经历和挑战，经常意识到他们的障碍和回报是 very similar. 

学生们经常引用他们在火博体育的研究经历作为基本术语 of what their ultimate career plans are. At the winter trustees meeting, several students 说这个项目是他们四年中最有意义的经历之一. Long-term, 这些项目帮助学生获得研究生院和研究事业的录取. 回国的毕业生不断告诉我们，他们在火博体育的动手研究工作 这使他们比其他没有这种能力的研究生更有优势 opportunity. Not infrequently, these other students graduated from large research-oriented universities. 

问:今年夏天，有51名学生和34名教师在39个不同的项目上工作 projects in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. This is a dramatic increase 2005年该项目有20名学生，2000年只有8名. To what do you attribute this growth?

A:教师和学生对暑期研究的需求总是超出我们的能力 research teams. Fortunately, we have significantly increased internal and external funding. 2008 was the first year of the Schupf Scholars Program, which supports four 以实验室和实地为基础的科学研究团队，特别强调 在历史上一直存在的科学领域增加女性的数量 been low representation. We have been helped out significantly by support from Student 机会基金，由学术咨询办公室管理，我们能够 to restructure on-campus costs for the program. Examples of external support include 支持水资源倡议的亚瑟·维宁·戴维斯基金会 项目，以及支持斯克里布纳-梅隆学者的梅隆基金会基金. 斯克里布纳-梅隆大学的学者是刚刚完成一年级学业的学生 Skidmore and are given the opportunity to do research as rising sophomores. 

随着资金的增加，教师和学生的需求也相应增加. 因此，尽管我们现在支持的团队数量创历史新高，但需求仍然存在 grow the program even more. Our greatest challenge as we move forward will not only 他将增加资金以配合对该计划日益增长的兴趣 但是能够找到资金继续支持这个项目在我们的水平 have done for the past several years. External grants supporting the Water Resources 倡议和斯克里布纳-梅隆计划即将结束，因此，为了支持 该计划今后在同一水平上还需要寻找额外的资源. 

Q: This summer 70 percent or so of the projects are math-science related. Does that surprise you?

A: Yes and no. National conversations in the sciences clearly suggest that faculty-student 合作是教学和研究的新范式，特别是在 high-quality undergraduate institutions. The science departments at Skidmore for quite some time have embraced this model. Therefore, it is not surprising that we have a large number of projects in science and mathematics. 

罗纳德·多特勒，全国大学生会议理事会主席 索尔兹伯里大学的研究和英语教授曾表示，本科生 研究是“21世纪的教学法”，但“人文系”已经是了 the slowest to participate.” So what has actually been surprising and encouraging 在过去的几年里，我们在其他地方有大量的项目 disciplines, such as English, French, music and theater. 

Q: Looking at this year’s lineup of projects, what excites you? 

A:让我印象深刻的是它涉及的学科范围很广，从生物学 to management and business, psychology to government and physics, to dance. Being 整个夏天，我都参与到教师之间的对话中 来自不同学科的学生使这个项目与众不同 exciting. 

在这个早期的关键时刻，很难确定我最终会选择哪些项目 will find as my favorites. For instance last year two of the final presentations that I most enjoyed were 七种担子菌真菌最佳生长条件的测定 on Various Combinations of Agricultural Waste Products for Green Insulation, 这是道恩·哈曼和苏·范·胡克的一个项目，她是生物学高级助教， and 面向万维网的交互式教学数字音频合成模块的开发 a project by Bryan Nielsen ’09 and Tony Holland, associate professor of music. The 生物小组研究了如何在农业废弃物上种植真菌来制造绝缘材料 for buildings. The music team produced an application to create music using Frequency Modulation Synthesis.

In any event, my favorites will not be everybody else’s. The program culminates this summer with a two-day conference, Aug. 7-8, at which students present the results of their work. I invite all interested parties to come and determine which projects they find the most stimulating. 

问:所有这些研究的结果是什么，比如发表的文章 in peer-reviewed or academic journals?

答:从项目中看到切实的成果总是值得的 national recognition or a published result. Some highlights over the last several years have been a student-and-faculty published book, The Architect of Necessity–Skidmore’s First Home in Downtown Saratoga; 研究一种药物对老鼠性动机的影响 in an article in Scientific American; and a project which garnered the student partner 这是美国生理学学院授予本科生卓越研究的国家奖项 Society’s Experimental Biology Conference. It should be noted that in the sciences 仅从2005年到2008年，就有58篇论文是由火博体育共同撰写的 students and faculty. Many, although not all, of these papers involved research done in the Summer Faculty/Student Research Program. While these specific projects are 一个程序质量的外部验证，也许比 许多参与的学生和教师都认为这个项目是他们最有收获的项目之一 Skidmore experiences.~Interview conducted by Peter MacDonald, Office of Communications

Posted On: 6/18/2009