Armacost Library Undergraduate Research Award: ALURA

[Extended] Submissions due: Sunday, March 22, 2020 by 5pm

Winners notified: Monday, March 30, 2020

Award Ceremony: [Canceled]

Honors Convocation: Thursday, April 16, 2020

Winners' research projects due in final form: Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Theo Whitcomb received the 2019 ALURA Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences award for his essay, "Advancing Dialectical Wisdom to the Non-Human World: Adam Smith and Materialisms of Ecological Collapse."

Alicia Santucci received the 2019 ALURA STEM award for her essay, "Media Portrayal of Offshore Oil Drilling in Louisiana in California."

1. Research Reflection Essay OR Responses to STEM Reflection Questions
2. The Research Product
3. Bibliography or other appropriate listing of sources consulted
4. Letter of Support from Faculty Advisor/Course Professor
5. Submit all of the above to InSPIRe at https://inspire.redlands.edu/alura/ 

Submit Research Reflection Essay OR STEM Reflection Questions, Faculty Statement of Support, and your research project for consideration for the award.

Use the Submit Research in the left-hand column of the ALURA on InSPIRe collection webpage to submit your work for review.

Additional instructions on submitting your ALURA projects via InSPIRe is available here. 

Arts, Humanities, & Social Sciences

Munro Galloway, Art Studio Chair: Janelle Julagay, Library
Co Nguyen, Music
Matthew Raffety, History
Sara Schoonmaker, Sociology Jennifer Tilton, Race & Ethnic Studies

STEM
Chair: Les Canterbury, Library
Eric Hill, Physics
Hillary Jenkins, Environmental Studies
Paige Mann, Library

The proliferation of electronic information has made undergraduate research a much more complex process than in the past. This award was established to reward those students who demonstrate thoughtfulness and creativity in their approach to research and whose work exhibits excellence in critical thinking. We seek submissions from undergraduate students across the curriculum whose research journeys have resulted in a research-based project (paper, poster, exhibition, performance, or other non-traditional research project).

Each ALURA awardee will receive recognition and $500.00 (although, in rare occasions, an award has been split between two scholars).

What do we mean by "research"?  For this award we define research as an investigation into the existing scholarship and/or creative production in a particular subject area or in relation to specific research questions.  If the primary focus of your project is lab experiments or data gathering and analysis, your Research Reflection Essay should discuss the current state of scholarship related to your research and how that work helped shape your hypothesis, methodology, etc. 

Currently enrolled University of Redlands undergraduate students may submit completed research (or made significant progress toward completing) that

• was completed (or made significant progress toward completing) while an enrolled student at the University of Redlands.
• was completed (or made significant progress toward completing) during the application period: January 2018 - March 2019. 

The ALURA Committee is looking for evidence of the following in both the research project and Research Reflection Essay:

• Demonstrate that you know how to form a strategy to identify, locate, select, evaluate and synthesize information in order to form a creative and original research project.
• Provide a clear explanation of significance of research.
• Exhibit clarity in organization and presentation of project.
• Demonstrate that you are able to effectively utilize a wide variety of tools to find and use information (especially library staff, services and resources).
• Demonstrate responsible use of information by providing appropriate and accurate citations using a citation manual, e.g. APA, MLA, Chicago or Turabian.
• Show evidence of significant and meaningful growth in the methods of research and inquiry.

Carefully review the ALURA Rubric so that you know how the selection committee will be evaluating your research project and Research Reflection Essay.

*In the event the Selection Committee determines that no research project meets the criteria outlined above, there will be no award given for that year.

The Research Reflection Essay or responses to the STEM Reflection Questions is the most important part of your application.  Please note that due to the nature of this award, this portion of your submission is heavily weighted, and therefore we encourage you to provide us with a thoughtful and thorough reflection of your research experience.

The research process will vary by discipline, and not every student will interact with library staff, services, and collections in the same way. While the traditional text-based academic genre of the research paper may have more obvious library connections, we encourage students engaged in other kinds of research to think carefully and creatively about how you have searched for, evaluated, and synthesized various information sources throughout your overall research journey. Your lab or field research is likely grounded in a comprehensive literature review, how did gathering and processing that information reinforce or change your research methods in the lab or field? Your research may have culminated in a performance or exhibit, likely informed by background investigation and inquiry; if so, how is that reflected in the final product?

Carefully review the ALURA Evaluation Rubric so that you know what the selection committee will be looking for in your Reflection Essay.

Meet with your subject librarian to discuss how to write an effective, award-winning Reflection Essay.

Each student application must include a Faculty Statement of Support as part of the application package. Your expert disciplinary assessment is an important consideration in the evaluation process. In your letter of support please specifically comment upon quality (including merit within the discipline and student ability); student engagement with library staff, services, and collections; and their collaboration with faculty, peers, and/or community experts in developing and completing the project.

We also ask that you commit to attending the Award Ceremony in April. At that ceremony student winners and their faculty sponsors speak about the research project and their experience of the research process.

Your letter should include:

• Your name    
• Department
• Contact information: email and phone
• Title of research paper/project
• Name of student
• Course alpha (if applicable)
• Paper/Project was completed Spring, May or Fall of 2019, or Spring 2020?                                                           

The paper/project and Research Reflection Essay will be judged according to the evaluation criteria outlined on the ALURA Evaluation Rubric.

Please comment:

• on the content and quality of the research paper or project, addressing both its merit within the discipline and how it reflects the student’s ability to select, evaluate, and synthesize sources;
• on the extent to which you think the student's engagement with library staff, services, and collections contributed to an exceptional research paper/project;
• and on the ways their collaboration with faculty, peers, and/or community experts contributed to the project.