–Interview coming with one of last year’s winners tmo —
The call is out for abstracts for St. Thomas University’s unique Student Research and Ideas Fair, due Feb. 6.
“Research within social sciences can take on a variety of forms,” said Kim Fenwick, dean of social sciences and event organizer. “Some of it’s more traditional research and some of it’s people giving different kinds of presentations that are maybe of a creative nature that you wouldn’t really consider traditional research.”
Students can display their research and other projects at the fair on March 6. Among other requirements listed on the university website are a 200-word-maximum abstract and a faculty mentor to guide the project.
“We want high-quality, polished presentations,” Fenwick said. “We’re kind of putting our best foot forward and we want the students to feel good about what they’re doing and confident, and we think the faculty involvement is helpful that way.”
She said working closely on a project with a faculty member is something most students appreciate. At larger universities and universities with graduate students, most faculty wouldn’t have the time to spare.
She hopes students will turn out to support their peers, and said it’s a good opportunity for them to learn about things outside their area of study.
Two presenters will be selected to present at sister school University of St. Thomas in Houston, TX, for three days in April, and two from that school will visit the Fredericton fair.
“We always get really good feedback from Houston that the caliber of student and research that we send down there is impressive to them,” Fenwick said. “So that is nice for us and I think it’s good for the students, too, to see that what they’re doing is high-quality and other places see it as high-quality.”
