Courtesy of Bowie State University
Student posters flooded the main lobby in the Center for Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Nursing as part of the annual spring Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) Symposium, which gave participating undergraduate students a chance to showcase the research projects they’ve been working on all semester.
Projects ranged from studying the connection between the diets of Hawaiian barn owls and their leg development to comparing biodiversity between mushroom populations found on Bowie State’s campus and Nigeria. The students presented their findings to peers, faculty and visitors representing some of Bowie State’s external partners, such as NASA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
“It makes me very proud,” said Dr. Dawit Hailu, a physics professor in the natural sciences department. “I know how the students have grown. They come out of their shell, and you can see that they shine.”
The symposium serves as the apex of the CURE program, a semester-long effort that seeks to expose undergraduate students with no research background to practical, hands-on research opportunities that address topics in a variety of disciplines. Students, under the tutelage of Bowie State faculty, worked together in small groups to learn how to conduct deep study on a topic and share their findings in a way that a broad audience would be able to understand.
Though Dr. Hailu and other natural sciences faculty hope the symposium awakens every student’s inner researcher, he believes the experience is beneficial for all the department’s undergraduates, even if their long-term career goals take them away from the sciences.
“It has a multi-prong benefit,” said Dr. Hailu. “It exposes students to doing research early, and that builds their confidence. On top of that, it helps them stand out from the crowd. When a recruiter sees they have that experience, it gives them an edge to hire our students.”