Topic: Research Incubator

Catalog description

This experiential learning course is designed to introduce students of all experience levels to academic and professional economic research. In groups of three to four, teams will create original research with the aim of presenting it at a professional conference and/or submitting it for publication at peer-reviewed journals. What makes this class particularly appealing is that it is driven by student interest. This is because the main objective is teaching research methods, not a particular subject matter. Because of this, groups are free to choose any topics they like, from the effect of immigration on unemployment; to the effect of summer vacation on mental health; to the impact of marijuana legalization on opioid addiction. The options are limitless! Another feature of this class is that it is open to freshman, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, which allows even brand new students an opportunity to engage in research. This is possible because mentorship is an important feature of this class. Each group will be have students from all levels, and more advanced student will be able to share their knowledge of working with data with their groupmates, acting as mentors and, at the same time, advancing their own economic knowledge and research skills. Within this setting, students will learn how to ask questions, what types of data they might consider using, where to find credible sources of data, how to approach analysis with all sorts of different data, and how to present their findings.