There’s an old cliché that says, ‘Never stop learning.’ That’s the root of engaged inquiry: expanding horizons, dreaming, pursuing professional development, asking questions and researching and developing new ideas. At Missouri State, we believe learning is for a lifetime, and we also believe in students gaining opportunities to grow alongside faculty mentors and to get their hands dirty conducting hands-on research.
One way we showcase the work of faculty and student researchers on campus is through the annual publication, Mind’s Eye. Since its creation in 2013, Missouri State has highlighted the research and scholarly activity of approximately 50 faculty members.
In Dr. Robert Mayanovic’s laboratory, which is one of 12 partner institutions in the United States funded through the Department of Energy’s Energy Frontier Research in Extreme Environments center, he and his students are researching materials to extract hydrogen more efficiently to make it a readily available energy source.
At the Jordan Valley Innovation Center, Dr. Paul Durham researches why nerve cells become hyperactive and why they cause pain. Durham’s lab is paving the way and discovering new interventions for those experiencing intense, chronic pain.
From her son’s consistently low marks on his spelling tests, Dr. Julie Masterson found the research question that motivated her. She researched literacy development in young children, and her findings suggested that the way in which we teach our children to spell may be wrong.
Dr. Wenping Qiu mapped the first DNA virus ever reported in grapevines, named the Grapevine Vein Clearing Virus (GVCV).
What makes their work and stories more incredible is the opportunity students are getting to conduct experiments alongside these faculty mentors. In many cases, these students are attaining grant funding for their projects, and presenting and publishing their findings.
2011-2015:
156 books
1,097 journal articles
251 chapters
255 creative works
Alumna Madeline Pletta and Dr. Chris Barnhart look at largemouth bass kept in tanks in MSU’s Temple Hall.
"We sequenced thousands of those small fragments, and then we compared our fragment sequences with sequences in the gene bank. And then we found, 'oh, this is new!'"
In many fields, research is essential to learning. You have to hone your curiosity, develop questions, seek methods to answer those questions and then offer solutions. These critical thinking and problem-solving skills are difficult to replicate without hands-on experience. That’s why many fields at Missouri State make research part of the curriculum even at the undergraduate level.
Undergraduate Research Day highlights the hard work of students in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, and it is an opportunity for students to share their research posters with the campus community. The College of Health and Human Services showcases graduate and undergraduate student research during its Student Research Symposium each spring. Several other departments across campus host similar events to allow students in a particular discipline the opportunity to present their research.
Daniel Hill, a senior electrical engineering major, presents his research on harnessing renewable energy during the annual College of Natural and Applied Sciences Undergraduate Research Day.
Getting your work published is a learning process: As you research, plan, write, edit, proof, submit and rewrite, you master your craft. In addition, getting your work in front of a publisher can be difficult. We think students should have the opportunity to grow through that experience.
Each year, the Honors College publishes LOGOS: A Journal of Undergraduate Research. Started in 2008, each volume has content such as essays, art, fiction, poetry and scholarly articles. Everything in LOGOS is created by undergraduate students and is selected using a peer-reviewed process. It’s another great example of engaged inquiry.
