Engineers Without Borders Clemson student Maria Koon is processing cashews in San Marcos Lempa, El Salvador. EWB and Creative Inquiry have joined together to give students real-life engineering experiences.

   

Learning today is more than taking notes and cramming for tests

By Crystal Boyles
Office of Web Services

Research is more than looking something up on Google or Wikipedia. It’s sifting through dusty stacks of old papers, looking at archived documents, learning how other cultures live, talking to people, and collaborating to solve a problem or make a change.

And it’s not just for students.

“It’s a road of discovery for me, too,” said Rhondda Thomas, an assistant English professor. “You tell them you have to go down these paths, and you don’t know what’s expected. … These projects can change the way we view our students and the way we view our work.”

Thomas led one of more than 200 Creative Inquiry undergraduate research projects on Clemson’s campus this past school year.

Spearheaded by Provost Dori Helms, the idea of collaborative research for undergraduates — Creative Inquiry — was based in part on what research creators knew about student success. “Students who connect to someone on campus (faculty or staff) perform better and are more likely to graduate,” said Jeff Appling, undergraduate studies associate dean for curriculum, who led the task force to develop the program.

“It appeals to faculty and staff who want to try new things, and it appeals to students that are looking for a different way to connect to their academics,” he said. “Since the projects tend to be ‘real world,’ the students feel that they are getting a dimension that they can’t see in typical classes and labs.”

Every college on campus has Creative Inquiry groups, which range from Engineers Without Borders to book publishing to health promotion and sound design.

While these projects last typically four semesters, Thomas’s group was two. Her students researched Pendleton native and Cleveland entrepreneur Jane Edna Hunter’s life and work in order to edit and annotate the second edition of her autobiography, A Nickel and a Prayer. Each student had a different focus area, and their research took them to Pendleton, Charleston and even Cleveland.

Their work has been accepted by the West Virginia University Press, which is going to republish the book as part of a new series, Regenerations, featuring out-of-print books by African American authors. It should come out in 2011, Thomas said.

“The experience transformed the classroom,” she said.

And her students agreed. They could talk to you for hours about their findings. Student Camille Nelson is so passionate about Hunter and this project that she did an internship with Thomas this summer and is still working with her to finish the first draft of annotations.

“This is definitely a résumé builder,” she said.

Engineers Without Borders Clemson chapter founder Jim Chamberlain expressed similar sentiments about Creative Inquiry.

“It definitely makes students more marketable because the experience shows employers that they can think and work independently, are self-disciplined, can work with team members across disciplines, can communicate effectively, and can imagine ‘outside the box’ in coming up with solutions that fit a different culture or environment (the needs of their client),” he said. “Employers want engineers and scientists who are flexible, creative, self-learning, and aware of how their work affects cultures and people’s lives. Creative Inquiry with Engineers Without Borders teaches all of this.”

This group has worked on numerous projects, including design and construction of a passive solar water heater for rooftops in post-Katrina New Orleans, design of a biodigester stove for home cooking in Vietnam and design and construction of a proto-type plastics extrusion device and mold to recycle plastic grocery bags into a usable product in El Salvador.

“The students who get involved are already overloaded with a full curriculum, yet they want to see that their work is really changing the world,” Chamberlain said.

Then there are projects like the one called Countering Toxic Health Messages for Women, which just finished this past year. It was led by Pam Havice, associate professor in leadership, counselor education, and human and organizational development.

The project evolved from researching literature on toxic messages targeting women into conducting hands-on research on campus. To get to the heart of the issue, the team held focus groups with female students to learn how music impacts them. They presented to participants that week’s top three downloaded songs in three formats: the written lyrics, the audio recording and the music video. Student researchers then discussed with participants what they felt and thought.
 
What they discovered was that female students found the music they hear on the radio depressing and degrading to women. Overwhelmingly, participants had been unaware of the negative messages found within the music that plays in the background of their everyday lives.
 
So, what did they do about it? Students used their research to create a week of awareness to combat these toxic messages. They collaborated with departments across campus to group together women-focused events during a week in April.
 
Their motto for the week sums up their entire mission: “To be extraordinary every day.”
 
Senior student researcher Monica Ryskamp felt one of the most exciting aspects was the chance to do more than participate in a research project.

“I was able to help plan and implement a week of events that helped to fill a need on the Clemson campus, and we were able to see how a small group of dedicated people really good make a big difference.”

Havice echoed Thomas’ sentiments about the Creative Inquiry project not only changing the students’ outlook, but hers as well: “For me, this experience energized me about my work and research and gave me a new perspective of the students we are graduating from Clemson.”

Clemson writer Carrie Dupre contributed to this article.

To read more stories about the determined spirit of Clemson’s faculty, staff, students and alumni, visit www.clemson.edu/determined.