All Articles

Are you doing research in an area that talented undergraduates would find compelling? Would you like the chance to generate intellectual interest and excitement among students by having an opportunity for free-flowing and critical discussions of your area of expertise in a one-credit Spring 2018 course?

The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is soliciting proposals for its Spring 2018 “Frontiers of the Discipline” seminars. Each one-credit seminar will be built around the research activities of the faculty leader. If you would like to share your research with curious undergraduates, exploring with them the current issues, challenges, and potential impact of your work, please submit a proposal (no more than one page) to Stephanie Hamilton at the college office (slh@iastate.edu) by Friday, September 15. The proposal should:

• include an attention-getting title and brief course description suitable for our website
• describe your research project or area
• state your goals and describe your plan for the Frontiers seminar
• note potential for student interest (include ideas about how you will recruit students)
• identify preferred days, times and any location requirements for your proposed Frontiers section (The default time for Frontiers courses is Wednesday afternoon 4:10-5 p.m.; if sharing your research would fit better in an alternative offering, such as half-semester formats meeting twice a week or once a week for a double session, you may propose that kind of course as well. Please consider how the offering time will work with potential students’ other courses.)

Each selected one-credit seminar will be limited to the first 20 students who register and will need to enroll at least 15 students in order to run. Students will be evaluated on a satisfactory-fail basis. Each faculty leader will be provided with a professional development grant of $750. Faculty who have participated in Frontiers offerings consistently speak well of this opportunity and several have found it helpful for recruiting undergraduates interested to the major and/or working in the labs of the faculty members.

For more information, check out the courses we selected to offer last spring. Please contact Amy Slagell (aslagell@iastate.edu) or Stephanie Hamilton (slh@iastate.edu) by e-mail if you have questions, and remember the deadline: Friday, September 15.