Faculty Workshop | Mid-Year Meeting | Spring Research Conference

Helping faculty to be succesful mentors requires intensive preparatory and ongoing training for the participating faculty members. We accomplish this through:

1. a faculty summer workshop;
2. a mid-year meeting;
3. a spring research conference;
4. an ongoing electronic listserv for the professors to discuss issues related to undergraduate research

Faculty Summer Workshop:
Before the faculty members begin mentoring their students in the undergraduate research group, they will attend a two-day summer workshop at BYU. The purposes of this workshop are to discuss logistics of the program, present ideas about effectively working with undergraduate research groups, and provide resources to help undergraduates prepare for graduate school. At this time we will setup an electronic listserv in which the participating professors can discuss questions, problems, experiences they are having as they work with the undergraduate research groups at their institutions. During this workshop there will also be some social activities, such as a banquet, a hike in the local mountains, and a possible outdoor excursion (e.g., a national park, white water rafting). Participants’ costs to attend the workshop will be covered by CURM.

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Mid-year Meeting:

In January, there will be a mid-year meeting during the Joint AMS/MAA meetings. During this mid-year meeting the faculty members will report on how their research group is progressing. In addition, we will have discussions concerning topics that the mentors will address in the following semester, such as ``How to help undergraduate students present quality talks at a conference,'' ``Where undergraduate students can publish research papers,'' ``How to get support from your institution to continue to do undergraduate research mentoring,'' etc. CURM has some funds to help some of the participating professors attend the Joint Meetings if they have no support from other sources.

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Spring Research Conference:

In March, CURM will hold a Spring Research Conference at BYU for students and their faculty mentors. The conference will consist of three components:

1. Friday sessions in which the student participants will be motivated and intellectually stimulated to continue to study mathematics and prepare for graduate school;
2. Friday sessions in which the faculty mentors will report on their research groups, evaluate the effectiveness of the program, and discuss issues concerning future undergraduate research; and
3. Saturday sessions in which the student participants will present their research with written feedback and guidance from faculty judges.

After the undergraduates attend and present their research during the Spring Research Conference, they will be paid $500 which is the next installment of their stipend. Participants’ costs to attend the Spring Research Conference will be covered by CURM. Students will also be required to submit a final written research paper. Upon the receipt of the final research paper they will recieve the final $500 of their stipend.

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