Students and faculty members at the University’s regional campuses in Dearborn and Flint will hold “A Meeting of Minds,” focusing on strategies for involving undergraduate students in research activities in Flint on Friday (May 14).
The symposium will highlight the benefits of student/faculty collaboration in research, defined broadly to include laboratory work, artistic expression and classroom innovation.
“One of the most engaging and transforming relationships between student and teacher is that of collaborators in a creative enterprise,” says Jacqueline L. Zeff, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at U-M-Flint. “Since one of the characteristics of our two campuses is the happy marriage of research and teaching, this symposium is a way to showcase our common strengths.”
Approximately 100 students and faculty members are expected to take part in the program that will include talks, posters, presentations and performances by students representing most of the academic disciplines on the two campuses.
Topics include “Growth and Characterization of Buckminsterfullerene Thin Films,” “Some Mathematical Implications of Schoenberg’s Twelve-Tone Compositions” and “Plasticity in the Growth of Mayan Refugee Children.”
“The program includes round-table discussions among faculty members and students from similar disciplines and forums where faculty can explore issues like obtaining support and receiving recognition while students discuss how to choose a topic and how to select (or avoid) a faculty sponsor,” according to physics Prof. Paul W. Zitzewitz, associate dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters at U-M-Dearborn.
Symposium planners already have seen the benefits of collaboration between the regional campuses “just in the interactions that have occurred to date,” Zeff says. “We hope that this program will lead to further collaborations between students and faculty members not only in Dearborn and in Flint, but in the other colleges and universities in our region.”
