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Episode Notes | Transcript | AskTheGuest

Hi Fives (5 Highlights) Click for 3-Minute Listen

Kymberly Harris is an Assoc. Professor in Elementary & Special Education & the Chair of Undergraduate Research Council at Georgia Southern University.

Prof. Harris was a school teacher before she became a University Professor.

As a Teacher you collect a lot of data. On academics, achievement test scores, how to motivate students, what time to day do they learn better etc. Research on that data, helps teachers make better decisions in the classroom, eventually leading to better education for the kids in their classrooms!

Prof. Harris joins us on our podcast to talk about UG Research at Georgia Southern, the role CUR plays, Impact of Research on Students, success stories, and finally the skills for high schoolers to do research.

Hi-Fives from the Podcast are:

Why UG Research
Chair UG Research at GSU
CUR’s Role
Student Participation
Advice for High Schoolers

Episode Notes

Episode Title: Prof. Kymberly Harris of Georgia Southern University on UG Research: Students Become Scholars.

Prof. Harris was a school teacher before she became a University Professor. As a Teacher you collect a lot of data. On academics, achievement test scores, how to motivate students, what time to day do they learn better etc.

Research on that data, helps teachers provide better education to the kids in their classrooms!

On our podcast, Prof. Harris talks about UG Research at Georgia Southern, the role CUR plays, Impact of Research on Students, success stories, and finally the skills for high schoolers to do research.

Topics discussed in this episode:

Introducing Prof. Kymberly Harris, GSU [0:55]
Hi Fives - Podcast Highlights [2:20]
Professional Background [5:02]
Why UG Research? [9:09]
Cascading Impact [11:49]
Chair of UG Research [12:53]
CUR’s Role [15:10]
Student Participation [17:09]
Engaging Students [20:21]
Success Stories [24:11]
Impact on Students [28:16]
What’s Ahead? [31:59]
Advice for High Schoolers [33:42]

Our Guest: Kymberly Harris, Assoc. Professor in Elementary & Special Education & the Chair of Undergraduate Research Council at Georgia Southern University. Prof. Harris received the Bachelor of Arts degrees in secondary Education and Teaching from Athens State University. She then earned her PhD in Special Education and Teaching from the University of Alabama.

Memorable Quote: “ I mean, it [Research is for everybody. It helps everybody, but it's especially helpful for those students who, you know, haven't really got their feet set in the path that they want to go because it gives them so much more interest.” Prof. Kymberly Harris on UG Research .

Episode Transcript: Please visit Episode’s Transcript.

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Episode Transcript

Transcript of the episode’s audio.

<Start Snippet> Kymberly H 0:14

But it was very evident that the growth of the students who were kind of on the lower end of the GPA was, was in fact significant, whereas the ones who were in the middle and then the high end, it was not significant. So their growth in their ability for both writing and you know, their writing skills, as well as their presentation skills, we had significant improvement in those particular students. So I always think about that that. I mean, it is for everybody, it helps everybody. But it's especially helpful for those students who, you know, haven't really got their feet set in the path that they want to go.

Venkat 0:55 [Introducing Prof. Kymberly Harris, Georgia Southern]

That is Kymberly Harris, Assoc. Professor in Elementary & Special Education & the Chair of Undergraduate Research Council at Georgia Southern University.

Hello, I am your host, Venkat Raman.

Prof. Harris was a school teacher before she became a University Professor.

As a Teacher you collect a lot of data.

On academics, achievement test scores, how to motivate students, what time to day do they learn better etc.

Research on that data, helps teachers make better decisions in the classroom, eventually leading to better education for the kids in their classrooms!

Venkat Raman 1:45

Before we jump into the podcast, here are the Hi-Fives, Five Highlights from the podcast:

Kymberly H 2:20 [Highlights - Hi Fives]

[Why UG Research]

So many people who think that teaching right is right, those who don't know teach that teaching is just such an easy thing. But the amount of kind of thinking on their feet, yes, acquired through specific knowledge of what data mean, how children are reacting to particular, you know, lessons or question binning and things like that, that's a very important thing to know. And you have to have a lot of solid background in the research in order to make those decisions, impact kids in the classroom.

[Chair UG Research at GSU]

So at Georgia Southern, I am the chair of the Undergraduate Research Council and we serve as the clearing house that is we we monitor there's a large net we award a large number of undergraduate research assistantships every year. We have a line item in the office of research. We're situated in the Office of Research.

[CUR’s Role]

You know, it is the national organization and certainly the most premier organization when it comes to undergraduate research. So for faculty, it provides a very solid research base for us to look at models and different ways to do that. But for students, it also has a variety of fundings.

[Student Participation]

And that ability for undergraduate students, right 18, 19, 20 year olds to go and present at these very prestigious conferences. And be the expert in that field certainly can be life changing for them as far as what how they see themselves, how they see their life's work, like what do I really want to be when I grow up that kind ofthing.

[Advice for High Schoolers]

Even if they don't know what they want to do, they did, they should figure out some way to read and digest. You know, paper journals and papers that are research related. So they can do chunking they can do whatever it is but those particular reading comprehension skills for research across all disciplines are necessary.

Venkat Raman 4:33

These were the Hi5s, brought to you by “College Matters. Alma Matters.”

Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

Venkat Raman 4:44

Now, I'm sure you want to hear the entire podcast with Professor Harris.

So without further ado, here is Professor Kymberly Harris!

-----------------

Venkat Raman 4:56

Maybe the best place to start is maybe tell us a little bit about yourself. And then we'll go from there.

Kymberly H 5:02 [Professional Background]

Absolutely. So I'm currently an associate professor in special education at Georgia State. My professional background, my PhD is in inner as called interdisciplinary teacher education was just shows that, yeah, my PhD is in a field in which my purpose is to prepare teachers. That's, that's what I do. And that's, and that's my primary job at Georgia Southern. When I was a teacher, in the classroom, I often had student teachers, teachers who were studying to be teachers. And they kind of shadowed me in my teaching, and learning everything that was to be about a teacher. And so I have some experience, obviously, before I got into academia, working with students who were in the field, and so that, that gave me a pretty solid background for, you know, for growing up and being a teacher preparation, you know, somebody who'd actually does that. So sure. So it was it was a natural, you know, natural jump from working with students in the classroom to working with students in the classroom, that was kind of the same thing.

Venkat Raman 6:16

So why did you get into this thing, what was, what was the driving passion?

Kymberly H 6:22

So I noticed when I saw once I became a university professor, my job was to go out into the classroom, and observe teachers who are teaching. And a lot of what teachers do has to do with data collection, for example, you know, they take data on children's academics, obviously, and their achievement scores and their test scores and how well they respond to interventions and what how well, they learned in the afternoon versus in the morning. So it was a large data collection piece, and a lot of the job of the teacher is to figure out what that data mean, so that they can better instruct, right, that's, you know, if you know, those kinds of things. And so I noticed that that connection, in my student teachers between like, they were actually collecting and analyzing data in order to make good decisions, that wasn't really clicking, they weren't seeing the connection between themselves as a data analyst, and how that actually, you know, improve their instruction. That's kind of got what got me started on it. And so I started a couple little small projects, trying to kind of be more explicit. And guess what, when you teach you collect and analyze the data, that's what's good. And so and so that's kind of what got me started. Initially, the certainly undergraduate research is prevalent in higher education, you do not see it a lot in colleges and schools of education.

Venkat Raman 7:57

I was going to say that this is a perspective that I hadn't considered. I mean, it was, I was intuitively I kind of see that there is a action Reaction Response kind of thing going on, but never thought of it as very data collection in the sense of an organized data science. So yeah, absolutely. It makes a lot of sense.

Kymberly H 8:18

Yeah. And I think, yeah, you're right. And I think that we get that a lot. You know, I've had people come in to me and say, you know, I don't really know anything about educational research. And I'm, like, all educational research is just research, right? It's just, it's just a very, you know, a lot of validity, a lot of reliability, you have to be, you know, very genuine and how you seek your population, everything that we do, you know, especially in social science research, is, you know, is certainly, you know, prevalent and how we, how we go about doing things with any other human being right. And so, yeah, it's not a Petri dish. You're right. But you know, it is certainly data, that's for sure.

Venkat Raman 9:02

That kind of leads me to, you're big on undergraduate research. Why is that, Why is that important?

Kymberly H 9:09 [Why UG Research?]

Well, I mean, I think that teachers themselves may and this but, you know, in, in my, in my field and my discipline, people usually have always wanted to be a teacher, right? They enjoy teaching. I mean, sometimes it's because they like children. I mean, there's a lot of you know, sometimes it's because of the summers off. I mean, there's lots of reasons to be that. But they don't often see. They don't often see themselves as scholars, right. They don't see themselves. They just see themselves as in a professional school. You know, if they go into graduate school, it's because additional degrees, increase their pay. And they see that as, I mean, obviously, they see as improved practice. I'm not saying they're just trying to, you know, get more money. I mean, I see it certainly as a way to refine their teaching and things like that. But undergraduate research when you kind of elevate teachers and to teacher scholars, I mean, they are the experts. I mean, isn't that really what research is all about? Right? Becoming an expert in everything. But you can certainly be an expert at looking at data, figuring out what it means for you in your classroom, what adjustments you have to make, whether or not what you're doing is working all of those things. That's a very complicated process. And there are so many people who think that teaching, right is, for those who don't know, teach that teaching is just such an easy thing. But the amount of kind of thinking on their feet, yes, acquired through specific knowledge of what data mean, how children are reacting to particular, you know, lessons or question, binning and things like that, that's a very important thing to know. And you have to have a lot of solid background in the research in order to make those decisions, impact kids in the classroom. So obviously, undergraduate research in my field is extremely important, because it's not just, I'm not just impacting, you know, my class of 30 undergraduates, you know, those kids, then impacting maybe 30. Kids, if they're in an elementary school, and maybe, you know, three times four times 30, if they're in middle school, in high school. So there's a huge impact on really creating teachers who see themselves as scholars.

Venkat Raman 11:38

Your point about this is like, you know, the multiplying factors are huge, right? One, one student impacting 30 impacting, you know, a lot more, so many, many

Kymberly H 11:49 [Cascading Impact]

more, right. And you know, that I think that we, that we, you know, we always think about that, like I don't particularly have, or maybe I do, but, um, because I've been in higher ed for a long time, but I don't particularly have, let's say, my favorite chemist, by golly, I have my favorite teacher, right. And I think that that connection that we all have, I mean, we're most of us are in school, a minimum of 12 years. And so that particular connection to really prepare teachers in a way that it elevates the teaching profession themselves. And so therefore, you know, elevates their position in the classroom for kids. I think that that I think that that's a really important thing. And so, and we have such a connection to our teachers when we're growing up, you know, that, that it would be nice to ensure that those particular people who are in the classroom, we're doing a good job.

Venkat Raman 12:43

What's your role in sort of fostering undergraduate research at Georgia, Georgia Southern?

Kymberly H 12:53 [Chair of UG Research]

So at Georgia Southern, I'm the chair of the Undergraduate Research Council, and we serve as the clearing house that is we we monitor there's a large amount we award a large number of undergraduate research assistantships every year. We have a we have a line item in the office of research. We're situated in the Office of Research. And so so it's, it's a university wide, certainly some colleges that you might expect, who do a lot of work with undergraduates. In other words, the undergraduates themselves might be working in particular labs and those, they also may have people at the college level, who also kind of facilitate, you know, different aspects of what the research is, but the undergraduate research council serves as a clearing house and a place for helping students when they're writing, for example, travel requests, so we fund students to travel, all of those particular things come through our council. It is a volunteer service position that is situated in the office of an office of research. And then also in my role as the as the chair of that board. I just finished chairing the planning committee for our very successful research, symposia. And so we had one, we have two campuses at Georgia Southern one, one in Statesboro, which is the primary campus and then we have a smaller campus in Savannah. And we have one on each campus, primarily undergraduates, you know, getting to promote and from all disciplines across all colleges. And so yeah, so that's kind of what I do. I, you know, answer questions, redirect help people find mentors in their particular discipline. And obviously, there's a whole committee that does those kinds of things. So that's, that's what I do with undergraduate research at Georgia Southern on a giant scale. In a little tiny scale. I run the undergraduate research project that we have in my program and the undergraduate program in special education.

Venkat Raman 15:02

Tell me a little bit about CUR how you guys work with her and how to help Georgia Southern.

Kymberly H 15:10 [CUR’s Role]

So we and we have had a long standing relationship with her. I mean, on any given, you know, in any given series, a series of years, we have several counselors who sit on occur. Now rolling off of the executive board at Kerr, certainly, I mean, it in and of itself, you know, brings innovative ideas, for example, how to reach minoritized populations, right how how to address, you know, because undergraduate research isn't just for honors kids, right? It's

Venkat Raman 15:41

right, right.

Kymberly H 15:43

So how how to, you know, different funding techniques to get, you know, to get students perhaps on campus earlier, you know, before before their freshman year even starts, and kind of excited about what it looks like to be a college student and do research. So CUR provides a whole Not to mention, you know, invited speakers and a whole variety of webinars and support for the National Conference on Undergraduate Research, which our students go to every year. So, you know, it is the national organization, and certainly the most premier organization when it comes to undergraduate research. So for faculty, it provides a very solid research base for us to look at models and different ways to do that. But for students, it also has a variety of funding so that they can attend me. Isn't there discipline conferences that incur? So yeah, there's, you know, different monies and funding available for whole thing through the Council on Undergraduate Research the national chapter.

Venkat Raman 16:50

Within Georgia Southern Now, you mentioned a bit about infrastructure and resources now, how how are you finding the participation across different disciplines? Students, I mean, give me a feel for how many undergraduate students actually, you know, engage in research.

Kymberly H 17:09 [Student Participation]

So, certainly that, you know, that is also kind of a flux. So in some colleges, undergraduate research is what we call a kicker, or a cure, right. So that the the, so for example, in the, in the sped program in the undergrad sped program, they have done research, and a follow up course in which a research activity is embedded. Right? That is, that's that kind of curriculum based research experience. And everybody who's an undergrad in special education has that research experience, right, they all collect data, they all analyze their data, it's kind of up to them, obviously, I don't make them present. But they do fill out a proposal, all of those particular things that will kind of get their feet wet in research. And you see across disciplines. So you see that in human ecology where they have, you know, a similar thing, some some of the humanities, for example, it might look like a literature review, and you have particular students inside and outside of honors, who become, you know, very interested in everything from how, you know, Beowulf looks like a Marvel comic book, or a lot of that. And so because we have the infrastructure in place, so for example, if that student does that particular research is supported by the faculty member, which is encouraged because as faculty, we get credit for it, we get credit for helping our undergraduate students. And then they want to go I just, we just funded somebody to go to Denver, right, so they want to go halfway across the country. There's monies that are available, and many times the both the college so that the college of arts and sciences that are college, you know, science will also provide additional funding, right, so they'll pay the registration and we'll pick up the rest of the tab. And that ability for undergraduate students, right 1819 20 year olds, to go and present at these very prestigious conferences. And be the expert in that field. Certainly, it can be life changing for them as far as what how they see themselves, how they see their life's work, like what do I really want to be when I grow up that kind of, but outside of presentations, I mean, it's very common for us to include, you know, for those students who continue through, like, for example, who finished their bachelor's degree in my field, go get a teaching job and then continue to work on their masters. They continue that can that particular piece of research throughout their graduate work, right, and that's not that's pretty common across disciplines to do that. And so because we have a pretty, you know, pretty static faculty when it comes to those particular pieces, that faculty mentor can stay with them, you know, while they finish their graduate work and things like that. So that's been my experience with it. And I've certainly seen that across all disciplines as well.

Venkat Raman 20:16

The students start engaging in their freshman year or what are you finding? Typically?

Kymberly H 20:21 [Engaging Students]

Well, there are certainly there are. There are disciplines, absolutely, where that recruitment starts, as soon as they make, so they can do what's, you know, the kind of pre determine what, like they're in a pre education track, or they're in a pre chemistry track where they think that they're going to show that they think they're going to major in a particular field. And so there are certainly professors, for example, in chemistry, or biology, microbiology, in the hard sciences, who look for those students, right, because they want to get them as early as they can, so that the student will have the entire research experience all the way through all four years, right. And we know that those students, right, who get involved in undergraduate research, they have better retention, right? They stay in school, they're more likely to graduate, their GPA is higher. Yeah. And they're also you know, they have a better shot of getting in grad school, if that's where they want to go. So those particular benefits of getting them, you know, when they're pretty young, I would say, you know, eight years old, you just walked on campus, and you have a university professor approaching you and say, Hey, would you like to work in my lab? Hey, would you like to help me with this data collection that I'm doing on a large scale, right through a survey. So those particular things can really, you know, hook kids, and make that connection between them and what they want to do, even if that even if they end up not wanting to do that? That particular experience of working with faculty like that, you know, can make make a huge difference in how a student feels about themselves.

Venkat Raman 21:58

These kids actually hear about research. I mean, is there something in the orientation program

Kymberly H 22:03

there is we have? Yes, there is there's a problem that we have that we have at Georgia Southern this is when they first come in. But you know, it's a lot of information when they're walking in there. Everything from housing to everything else, but the Office of Research does, in fact, we have webinars and a whole variety of things. For us personally, in the College of Education, once they get into what's called the pre professional block. So we're talking first semester, sophomores, and they, they've decided that they want to grow up and be a teacher. And so they're in that block, we go in, there's six or seven others who go into those particular sections, and say, Hey, this is the opportunity that we have for you. And you can see right away that there's going to be some students who absolutely, you know, they, they may not want to do like the large group project, right in, especially if you're going to do something else, but they have another idea for or they would like to help a university professor with their own research with their own data collection. So a lot of it is recruitment. And I think that that kind of personal touch of going into classrooms rather than just hitting a link. Yep. Yeah. It's what makes recruitment much more fruitful. You know, it's just better to see real better to see the real person, you know, it and certainly because we've done it that way, we experienced some loss during COVID. Right, because we weren't Yeah, right. Even though we were given, you know, 15 minutes, you know, during virtual classes and things like that. It's just not the same. It wasn't the same. Yeah.

Venkat Raman 23:36

What percentage of undergraduate students end up doing research? Is it 20% 40% 80%?

Kymberly H 23:42

Yeah, I would say it's probably not counting the honor students, right. Because they all they have something like that. I imagine that it's somewhere around one in five about 20%. Okay,

Venkat Raman 23:53

okay. That's, that's a good number. You know, one of the one of the things that I hear a lot is about how it shifts the student, how it changes them provides them new skills. Any interesting stories that you have, or,

Kymberly H 24:11 [Success Stories]

well, I'm not gonna steal if you if you ever get a chance to get Dr. Jemelleh Coes on here, I'm not gonna steal her thunder, though. She certainly is our most outstanding. Well, good. But I mean, just when I think back when we first started this program, we wanted because the honors program had always offered, right. I was offered this research opportunity, and they would hook him up with mentors who were very well skilled, and they were all in a cohort. And I learned all these particular research based skills, data collection, all those particular things that they were doing it, you know, in a rather long, you know, 100 of them, right. Yeah. And so when we, we wrote a little tiny grant, a little seed grant to get this program off the ground. And one of the things that we were looking at specifically was to make sure that it was just for everybody right? Now to be in the teacher ed program, you have to have a two, a 2.75. So not a, b, right, just a little below a, b, you have to have that to get in and then to get out, in other words to graduate and, and get your teaching degree and all that you have to have maintain that. So you can never go below that GPA. And so, um, and in different professional schools, right nursing, as they say it's a 375. But they don't let really anybody in there without a three none. So yeah, just it's just how those things work. So when we first started this, we did a cohort, a cohort model of six students, and we, and we invited, they were hand selected, and we purposely picked students who were in that range. Yeah, yeah. So two, who were just kind of 275 ish, right? Who were kind of 3.2 ish. And then two, who were 3.3. And above. And it was very evident, we had a whole bunch of different ways of measuring it, including some, including some standardized tests. But it was very evident that the growth of the students who were kind of on the lower end of the GPA was I was, in fact, significant, whereas the ones who were in the middle, and then the high end, it was not significant. So their growth in their ability for both writing and, you know, their writing skills, as well as their presentation skills, we had significant improvement in those particular students. So I always think about that that, I mean, it is for everybody, it helps everybody, but it's especially helpful for those students who, you know, haven't really got their feet set in the path that they want to go because it gives them so much more interest. And certainly, you know, they feel better about what they're doing, because they understand it more. And, and, you know, that kind of feel good moment, when they recognize that what they're doing is really going to improve them in whatever field they're in. I think that that has a lot to do. So when we talk about success stories, I always like to think, you know, it's really for those people who don't necessarily look at themselves as researchers. Right. And, and so that's why it's, it has certainly, I mean, it's, it's been, and that's been true across the board. So we've been doing it, we're in our 10th year now. And so that has been true across the board. And so went from kind of a select you because we didn't have necessarily all the support that we needed from the faculty to now where all the students in the special ed undergraduate program are doing that. And so that that growth, you know, it's been helpful for all of them to, you know, see that it is it is a profession, right, it is a vocation, it's a calling. And there's a lot of things that go into doing that, you know, it's not just staying up there with the instructor level book and trying to teach out of it. Yeah.

Venkat Raman 27:55

Absolutely, absolutely.

Now, I find what you just stated about this study, fascinating, because it, I mean, is it the case that these kids that were at the lower end of the GPS spectrum, you feel didn't have the opportunities, or didn't have the focus or both?

Kymberly H 28:16 [Impact on Students]

I think it's some it was the opportunities, I think, in some, they were never, they were never spoken to or viewed as being capable. Right. And they just kind of fell into that, you know, they were not given, you know, they didn't necessarily raise their hand for opportunities. And so they weren't ever called upon, but to give them you know, especially now where everybody's got to do it, you don't even have to raise your hand. Yeah, that has certainly made a big difference. So yes, I would say in both ways, right, that they were reluctant to do it, because maybe it seemed like a lot of work, and they didn't, that wasn't, you know, that wasn't what they there wasn't there, you know, schwag that didn't want to do that. But then once they got in it, even though it certainly is work, I mean, it's it doesn't just come to you, you know, you have to do it, it became it became more important, right, it became more important for them to do that. Because it made sense to write Oh, this is what it means to be a teacher, right? This is how I improve this is how I improve the outcomes in my classroom by looking at these things that are telling me really important attributes and characteristics about the kids in my classroom and boy now that I know this, I can really make a difference. And so I think that that, you know, because it kind of feeds on itself, right?

Venkat Raman 29:35

Yeah. What kind of skill that any kid I mean, my kid I mean, undergraduate student, doing research, what kind of skills and characteristics today game you think at the end of the day?

Kymberly H 29:54

Well, if that so if they're, you know, certainly if they're working in a lab, right, that's something entirely different than working in the humanities. But if they're working in a lab, I think that precision that requires, you know, those particular things and that attention to detail, all of that is and that will always serve them well. Right. As well as, you know, the written skills. And as far as writing up lab reports, and being specific to the data that's presented, for those in maybe some of the, you know, softer sciences, or the other disciplines, the humanities and arts, that recognition that they've created something that they have done something that they have found something and talked about something that nobody else has ever talked about before. I think that that that particular skill, trusting their own, trusting their own interest in you know, if I find this interesting, and look, by golly, other people's find it find it interesting, too. And the connection, the connections that they make between what they've read, and what they think about what they personally think about, right. Certainly, it's based on the literature, but their ability to make those leaps beyond stuff that they've ever written or read before, right, they create new knowledge. Yeah, I think that, that, that, that willingness to kind of trust yourself, that you're going in the right direction, you know, certainly is going to help you for for, you know, the specific disciplines insofar as, you know, people who might might be trying new trials in physical therapy, or some of the health sciences, those things have impact, you know, way beyond what, you know, what might be recognized, for example, but you know, if I go back to the teaching, the all the impact that all of us have, you know, regarding improving a student's understanding of how the world around them works. That's that's found to be a good thing.

Venkat Raman 31:52

You guys are doing a lot of stuff in undergraduate research. So as the chair, what's ahead for research at Georgia.

Kymberly H 31:59 [What’s Ahead?]

So we had to reboot the symposium this year, obviously, we've been virtual for the last two years. So yeah. And so I think that we're so nothing is ever right now, we're not the same as we were, you know, pre pandemic. And so, we are certainly looking for more connection between the disciplines, I think that that's going to be important. And investigating again, what you know, some I know that you've had my friend, Dr. Ryan's Tim rise at Emory, what they do, where they undergraduate research, as soon as they set foot on campus at Emory, we are certainly investigating things like that just because of the benefits of undergraduate research. As we have done things across the state of Georgia, and not just Georgia, but everywhere, for example, relaxing, relaxing, standardized test, you know, as far as not requiring ACT and SATs much. That That means that we're going to have to be sure that when the kid that when we get the undergraduate students that they're aware of some of the rigors of what it takes to be in college and undergraduate research is a way to kind of hook them in and make it more relevant to them. Right if they're interested in not going to be oh, this is a book I have to read or, you know, a page I have to fill out Yeah.

Venkat Raman 33:25

As we start winding down, Kymberly, I wanted you to give us your the high schoolers out there some advice on how and what kind of skills they are to develop for research, what should they be working on right now.

Kymberly H 33:42 [Advice for High Schoolers]

So even if they don't know what they want to do, they, they should figure out some way to read and digest. You know, paper journals and papers that are research related. So they can do chunking they can do whatever it is, but those particular reading comprehension skills for research across all disciplines are necessary. Now certainly, they'll get some guidance on how to best you know, look at things like the results pieces, and, and the discussion pieces and things like that. But going in and reading things that really take you know, that you have to ingest and you can't just read it one time, you have to go back and read it several times. I think that those particular types of skills are there. I think that collaboration is a huge skill. Very rarely do we ever do any kind of research, undergraduate, graduate as faculty or anything else by ourselves, right. Normally doing things as research teams, we write grants as teams. And so that ability to collaborate and recognize what piece you're good at, and be able to promote yourself in that particular field. Right that I'm really good at it I'm really good at wrapping it, if you will tell me what the what the what we found out I'm really good at looking at the conclusion I'm really good at looking at the implication, what does this mean? And being able to recognize that skill in yourself, which obviously by reading will help you. But that collaborative piece is also very good. And then recognizing that is, and I don't care if you're going to an R one and R two, bachelors, only liberal arts, whatever, whatever size school it is, recognizing that faculty really do want to do research with you. Right? That's something that faculty really want to do, and being comfortable with kind of figuring out things maybe that you have questions about, like, why does it why does it work that way? Yeah. Telling a faculty you saying, I'm interested in and trying to figure out, you know, why, why, why do we have a schedule? Why does school start at eight o'clock in the morning, why to school, go till three o'clock in the afternoon, I have questions about that. And you will find faculty who are just as interested as you are. And so I think that that's the important thing to be able to read really well, even when it's difficult to be able to reach out and collaborate and, and work with other people and know what you're good at. Sometimes that takes a little while. And then to be and then to advocate for yourself when you get in school. So that you know you will do that outreach to people and cleaning faculty and staff and other students who may be able to help you in that.

Venkat Raman 36:30

No, that's a fantastic suggestions. And I hope the high schoolers listening out there were heed to this. So Kymberly, thank you so much for making the time this has been a very exciting conversation. I really want to talk to you much more in the future. But right now, thank you. Take care and be safe.

Kymberly H 36:50

Thank you.

--------------------

Venkat 36:57

Hi again!

Hope you enjoyed our podcast with Prof Kymberly Harris of Georgia Southern about Undergraduate Research.

Specifically, Prof. Harris covered:

Role of UG Research;
UG Research infrastructure and resources available to their students and faculty;
Student Success Stories;
Finally, advice to high schoolers on the skills needed to do research

I hope you pursue research during your undergraduate years and explore Georgia Southern for your undergraduate studies.

For your questions or comments on this podcast, please email podcast at almamatters.io [podcast@almamatters.io].

Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast today.

Transcripts for this podcast and previous podcasts are on almamatters.io forward slash podcasts [almamatters.io/podcasts].

To stay connected with us, Subscribe to Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or Spotify or visit anchor.fm forward slash almamatters [anchor.fm/almamatters] to check us out.

Till we meet again, take care and be safe.

Thank you!

Summary Keywords

Podcast for High Schoolers, College Majors, US Colleges, College Podcast, Undergraduate Research Podcast, UG Research Podcast, High School Students, College-bound UG Research, undergraduate research, Georgia Southern University, GSU.

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