Undergraduate Research and Curricular Enrichment Opportunities

Opportunities for Independent Study

Directed Reading/Research Courses allow students to pursue research or independent study under a sponsoring faculty mentor.  For some students, this may involve gaining "hands-on" laboratory or field experience working on a research project under the guidance of a faculty member or a member of his or her research group.  For others, it may involve in-depth reading and library research, followed by discussion sessions or a research paper.   However you choose to design this opportunity, the experience will help you to develop a self-directed and independent view towards learning, strengthen your communication, research, and presentation skills, and allow you to practice applying information that you have learned in classrooms/textbooks to real-life problems. 

Students can register for directed reading/research credits in nearly every department. As an examples, here’s how the Philosophy Department and the Psychology Department describe these courses:

“Students who are majoring or minoring in Philosophy are encouraged to undertake independent study. This involves identifying an area of interest and finding a member of the Department who is willing to help in preparing a study plan and to supervise a semester's work. Students then enroll in PHIL 399 (no more than three credits of which count toward the major or minor). Under their chosen faculty supervisor they write a single extended (more than 8,000 words) essay, suitable for presentation at the Mānoa Undergraduate Research Symposium held each year. The essay will also be entered for the David Hall Prize, which is an expenses-paid trip to read the prize-winning essay at the Undergraduate Philosophy Conference, held annually in Oneonta, NY.”  

Source: http://www.hawaii.edu/phil/

“PSY 499 is a course, which operates under the mentorship model, where you work directly on research projects with a full-time psychology faculty member or their graduate student as their supervisor.  In order to find a professor that you are interested in working with, review faculty research interests, which are listed briefly in the Undergraduate Catalog or may be obtained from the undergraduate advising office.  Once you have found a faculty member with a compatible research interest, contact that individual through e-mail or by leaving correspondence in their mailbox in the psychology department.  In your e-mail or letter correspondence, you should provide the faculty member with a description of why you are interested in participating in PSY 499 and explain your interest in the particular research area in which the faculty is involved.” –

Source: http://www2.hawaii.edu/~psychadv/

Created by Lynne Higa, Christine Kirk-Kuwaye

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