Summer Undergraduate Research Program (NSSURP)

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Natural Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program (NSSURP)

The Natural Sciences Summer Undergraduate Research Program involves PLU faculty mentors with research projects reflecting the natural sciences fields of biology, chemistry, computer science, geosciences, mathematics, and physics. Mentors facilitate weekly professional development gatherings to encourage a research community experience. One-on-one and as a laboratory- and/or field-research team, mentors engage with and guide their selected PLU student researchers. The student researchers study research ethics, read peer-reviewed research literature, formulate research questions, carry out specific research procedures, record results, analyze data, write research reports, and present their findings through oral and poster forms. Mentors may include their student researchers as co-authors for papers presented at professional meetings or published in peer-reviewed journals. The student researchers experience a learning dimension rarely accessible from the academic-year textbook and laboratory assignments. Through research failures and triumphs, students gain confidence in their ability to face unknowns and to solve problems, develop ways of thinking that typify researchers, and appreciate the exhilaration of discovery. Student-researchers bring a richer understanding of the natural sciences to their future roles as professionals and as world citizens.