Chemical Education Today

www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 82 No. 1 January 2005 • Journal of Chemical Education 15

Association Reports: CUR

Community-Based Research

A New Paradigm for Undergraduate Research in the Sciencesby Kerry K. Karukstis

edited byKerry Karukstis

Harvey Mudd CollegeClaremont, CA 91711

Community-based research—research developed andconducted in service of unmet community-identifiedneeds—is an increasingly popular experiential opportunityfor undergraduates in the sciences (1). As with any new aca-demic venture, participants must address a variety of issuesto ensure a successful educational outcome. In conjunctionwith symposia and workshops on community-based re-search, the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR)conducted a survey (2) among the attendees at its 2004 Na-tional Conference to explore various models of community-based research. The benefits, challenges, and obstacles to thisnon-traditional approach to undergraduate research werealso examined and are reported here.

Identifying the Community

Meeting attendees broadly interpreted the notion of“community” in community-based research. Stakeholdersincluded not-for-profit community service and welfare or-ganizations, local governmental agencies, small businessesowned and operated in the locale, neighborhood groups,and even individuals who reside in the region. Local publicand private schools, libraries, museums, and faith-based or-ganizations were also often cited as community examples.Any one or even a combination of these stakeholders mayserve as the focus for undergraduate civic engagement.

Critical Elements of Community-Based Research

Survey participants were asked to delineate the elementsthat are necessary for research to be defined as community-based. Responders almost unanimously (97.1%) stated thatsuch research requires the selected topic to be relevant to thelocal community and further agreed (79.4%) that the resultsneeded to be presented to the local community. Viewing suchresearch as inherently collaborative (75.0%), meeting partici-pants agreed that professional researchers in conjunction withthe local community should choose the research topic(85.3%), collect the data (73.5%), present the data to the com-munity (77.9%), and present the data to policymakers(86.8%). However, research design, data analysis, and com-munication of results to the scientific community were morelikely to be designated as activities to be performed entirelyby professional researchers. The recommended stages of in-volvement for undergraduates included designing the research,collecting and analyzing the data, and presenting the resultsto both the local and scientific communities.

Benefits of Community-Based Research

A discussion on the benefits of community-based researchseparately considered the rewards for students and for faculty.

For undergraduates, responders routinely cited the importanceof learning real-world applications of a discipline, highlight-ing the relevance of science, and working on real problems.Indeed, the words “relevant” and “real-world” as well as “pur-pose” and “utility” appeared in more than 35% of the re-sponses. It is clear that the focus of community-based researchis appealing to many students who want to see the practicalvalue of science. One survey participant noted, “The greatestsingle benefit is probably showing students that what scien-tists do has a direct benefit to and impact on the larger com-munity that they daily live in” (2).

For faculty, community-based research provides a con-nection to the local community, an opportunity to becomeinvolved and invested in the community in which they re-side. The service and outreach component of community-based research was viewed as an essential component thatprovided tremendous personal rewards. Nearly 90% of re-spondents viewed this form of research as “a chance to giveback to the local community.” Many noted that such re-search activity provided a mechanism for blending seeminglyseparate roles of teaching, research, and service and reduc-ing the compartmentalization of faculty professional lives.Such efforts also enhance the visibility and image of the in-stitution. Improving town and gown relations is a positiveoutcome of community-based research cited by 75% of sur-vey participants.

Obstacles and Challenges

Meeting attendees were asked to identify the “greatestsingle philosophical or intellectual challenge of doing com-munity-based research.” Most responses focused on three is-sues. (1) Designing a meaningful research project involving atopic of mutual interest to both researcher and communitywas of paramount importance to participants and a commonchallenge. Additional factors that must be considered in for-mulating a particular research project include the research skillsand time constraints of undergraduates and the availabilityof funding. (2) Once the project is defined, researchers strugglewith insuring the scientific rigor of the investigation whilebeing sensitive to the desire for community input and involve-ment. Most respondents assumed that community memberswould have little understanding of how scientific research isconducted and would require explanations of why scientificmethodology is necessary. (3) Finally, survey participants ex-pressed concern over community-based research being ac-cepted as legitimate research by their disciplinary peers andby their institutions.

When asked to identify “the greatest logistical obstacle”on their campuses for conducting community-based research,respondents cited time more than any other deterrent. The

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Association Reports: CUR

time to develop connections within the community and tolocate and initiate projects was viewed as an additional bur-den beyond traditional research obstacles and, in some cases,was judged as an insurmountable barrier. The lack of recog-nition by the academic community for this type of researchoften contributed to time constraints, as faculty conductingcommunity-based research often did so as an additional lineof research. The difficulty of designing research projects to fitthe academic schedule was another time issue, although thisimpediment is not unique to community-based research.However, faculty also cited the lack of adequate transporta-tion for undergraduate participation as a hindrance not facedby traditional laboratory research investigations (yet a poten-tial obstacle for field research).

One of the workshops at the CUR 2004 National Con-ference described a particular institutional mechanism for ad-dressing a range of obstacles for conducting community-basedresearch. The formal creation of an Office of Community-Based and Applied Research at Indiana University East en-abled faculty to strengthen their interactions with thecommunity (3). In particular, two important roles for this of-fice included serving as an information portal about scien-tific research for the community and functioning as an entrypoint for the community to communicate and interact withthe faculty.

Successful Community-Based Research Efforts

The CUR 2004 National Conference featured a num-ber of successful collaborative research efforts involving lo-cal communities. Two chemistry faculty, in particular, werespeakers in the plenary session devoted to community-basedresearch. Alanah Fitch, Professor of Analytical Chemistry andDirector of the Environmental Studies/Science program atLoyola University of Chicago, described an educational pro-gram in which students in her undergraduate analytical chem-istry courses participate with community groups to measurelead in inner city residences and neighborhoods (4, 5). Hereducational activities on problem-based and community-based learning were recognized in 1996 through a nationalaward sponsored by Anheuser-Busch. Ray Turner, ExecutiveDean of Mathematics, Science, and Technology at RoxburyCommunity College, Roxbury, MA, is currently involved inan environmental science program known as FUSION—Fa-cilitating Urban Science Initiatives by Organizational Net-working—that engages more than 30 federal, state, and localagencies in collaborative research projects related to environ-mental issues (6, 7).

Conclusions

Survey participants were overwhelmingly supportive ofcommunity-based research as a powerful way for students tolearn important research skills and for faculty to contributeto their local community. As more successful examples of suchcollaborative ventures are shared within the academic com-munity, this form of research is likely to become increasinglyincorporated in traditional undergraduate research programs.CUR hopes that its survey on attitudes towards community-based research will assist faculty in finding innovative waysto facilitate this form of undergraduate research in the sci-ences.

Literature Cited

1. Paul, E. L. Undergraduate Research for the Public Good:Engaging Undergraduates in Community-Based Research.Council on Undergraduate Research Quarterly 2003, 23,180–185.

2. A Survey on Attitudes Towards Community-Based Research.Council on Undergraduate Research: Washington, DC, 2004;http://www.cur.org/pdf/CUR2004CBR_SurveyResult.pdf(accessed Nov 2004).

3. Jerzak, P. A.; Foos, C. L.; Blakefield, M.; Clark, K.; Harper,J. Creation of an Office of Community-Based and AppliedResearch at Indiana University East. CUR2004 NationalConference, LaCrosse, WI, July 2004.

4. Fitch, A.; Reppmann, A.; Schmidt, J. The Ethics of Com-munity/Undergraduate Collaborative Research in Chemis-try. In Acting Local ly : Concepts and Model s forService-Learning in Environmental Studies, Ward, H., Ed.;American Association for Higher Education: Washington,DC, 1999.

5. Cordes, C. How Community-Based Research Changed aProfessor’s Career. The Chronicle of Higher Education 45,September 18, 1998.

6. Turner, R. The F.U.S.I.O.N. Incubator: A Model for In-fluencing and Contributing to Advanced Scientific Researchthrough Interagency Collaboration and Partnership. Ab-stracts of Papers, CHED-465, 227th ACS National Meet-ing, Anaheim, CA, March 28–April 1, 2004.

7. Turner, R. E. Spinning ATOMS Draws Energy fromFUSION. J. Chem. Educ. 2004, 81, 1246–1250.

Kerry K. Karukstis is in the Department of Chemistry,Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA 91711;Kerry_Karukstis@hmc.edu.