VIU Work in Undergraduate Research
VIU - Community Based Research Institute
The Institute’s mandate will be to foster and coordinate Community Based Research activities in such areas as community health, well-being and development, and family, community, or social issues, as well as other Community Based Research projects across the institution as a whole.
The newly-created Community Based Research Institute at VIU is designed to complement established curriculum and learning experiences across all university-college departments and courses. Projects take place in the context of courses including in-class, project-based, and field courses offered in the Faculties of Health and Human Services, Management, Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Science and Technology. Our partners include: service providers; research institutes; community based agencies and other non-governmental agencies; informal community groups and associations; hospitals and schools; local and provincial agencies; public housing; museums and cultural centers; universities; ethnic and national groups; public and private funding agencies; and the media. The Community Based Research Institute will strive to build upon these activities and relationships beginning with a regional focus, and over time, moving into activity at the national, and international levels.
The CBRI will be staffed by one part-time Co-ordinator and a part-time administrative support person who report to the Vice-President Academic. Faculty and students will participate as part of their established coursework (e.g., practicums, senior projects, research courses).
Psychology Labs
The Psychology Laboratory was original designed as a large lab space for faculty research, with some limited capacity for supporting students engaged in research methods coursework ie space for data collection. As the culture of research developed at VIU, internal funding was provided to realign space in the Lab to accommodate interview spaces and play spaces for observation, to provide confidential office stations and lock up space for student project work, and to buy some essential equipment. Since that time, seven separate labs that engage undergraduate researchers have evolved in this shared space: Fear and Anxiety Lab; Sleep and Neuroscience Lab; Resilience Lab; Behavioural Medicine Lab; Community Lab; Immunocycto Chemistry Lab; and an Electrophysiology Lab. Students are often involved in more than one lab, and through third and fourth year research courses, can gain an advantage over other undergraduate Psychology students because they are taught research skills that others might not encounter until Grad School.
Integrated Sciences Centre
VIU is in the opening stages of building a 4,250 m2 Integrated Sciences Centre (ISC) on the Nanaimo campus. This exciting initiative will bring most of the discipline-based departments in the Faculty of Science and Technology together under one roof.
It is our intention to create inviting spaces in the entrance and elsewhere within the building that foster dialogue, enquiry and collegiality. The concourse will provide an opportunity to exhibit the achievements of our students and researchers and to demonstrate the benefits of scientific scholarship. We expect that creation of such spaces and displays will be partnered with external groups from the community, industry and government.
The architects have been asked to create a “Gateway” building that will engender modernity, efficiency, sustainability, comfort and wellbeing for the users. It is expected that there will be a concourse with a café, display aquaria, and general display areas in addition to comfortable discussion alcoves. We are expecting to increase the impact of the building and the service it provides to the community by creating spaces that will bring students and the public closer to the research taking place and which can serve an educational function. These spaces might include dialogue and seminar rooms and visual access to some of the research laboratories.
VIU has built an enviable reputation for incorporating research as an important component of undergraduate curricula, and we plan to develop our programs so that integration of research at all stages in a student’s education becomes the norm. The Faculty of Science and Technology is also committed to inquiry and problem-based learning models, and many students participate in research courses and inquiry-based models of education are standard in most upper level courses. The Integrated Science Centre provides an opportunity to create the infrastructure needed for this type of instruction, where the separation between lecture theatres and laboratories is less obvious.
Biology
An exciting and distinctive aspect of the Biology program is that all fourth year students conduct an Undergraduate Research Project with a Biology faculty member. This activity develops critical independent thinking skills, enhances the students’ repertoire of laboratory and field techniques required for employment and graduate studies, and introduces students to the fun and challenges of research in the life sciences.
These one-year projects involve the students in the scientific process while advancing their training in field and laboratory research skills. Students are provided the opportunity to interact with their peers and with scientists affiliated with various local agencies, organizations or institutions, in addition to VIU faculties. Final research results are presented orally and as a written report. Student research projects generally address topics of interest to people in the community, and cover a broad range of scientific interest, including molecular biology, cell biology, ecology, parasitology, microbiology and botany.
Chemistry
The department also offers a range of upper level (third and fourth year) courses that offer greater depth in each of the sub-disciplines. Many of these have an emphasis on Environmental Chemistry that integrate closely with the state-of-the-art Applied Environmental Research Lab (AERL). Many of our projects involve the development and use of Membrane Introduction Mass Spectrometry (MIMS) for real-time, ultra trace level analysis of volatile and semi-volatile compounds. The AERL specializes in collaborative research projects involving faculty, students, private sector and community partnerships. A number of AERL projects are interdisciplinary and involve the active participation of other departments such as Biology, Geology, Fisheries and Forestry.
Applied Environmental Research Lab (AERL)
The design of the Applied Environmental Research Lab (AERL) was influenced more by the needs of the curriculum rather than the facility itself. With limited funding to build the lab, the interior space was designed to accommodate equipment and projects, keeping in consideration the scale of the projects and the skill level of the people active within it. The AERL team considered it paramount to be able to support faculty in their own research and advancement, to deliver research results that are relevant to the discipline, yet to keep the projects doable with undergraduate students. Therefore, the equipment was chosen was relatively easy to use and the lay out of the lab was carefully planned to assure accessibility to the equipment within the small space available.
Over the last few years, the success of the undergraduate research programs in Biology, Chemistry and also in Nursing has been evident in the success of thier students in securing 11 national awards for both undergraduate and graduate research that totalled over $100,000.
New Faculty of Management Centre
The new Faculty of Management Centre opened in February of 2007, and is designed with undergraduate research students in mind. For example, the building houses a shared Tourism and Recreation Research office, which contains resources and meeting space for faculty and students to access. Next door is a dedicated student research space that provides secure project work stations for students engaged in on-going research projects. In addition, two student seminar rooms are available for research students to conduct interviews, to host small focus groups, or to meet as research teams. On the floor below is located a brand new computer teaching lab that is equipped with both qualitative and quantitative research software.
Recreation and Tourism Research Institute
The purpose of the Recreation and Tourism Research Institute is to cultivate interest,appreciation and skillsin recreation and tourism management research among emerging professionals, those in the industry, and faculty at VIU, by undertaking a wide range of research projects that involve students, provides valuable information to those working in the field, and enhances teaching and learning within the Department of Recreation and Tourism Management.
For example, each summer a group of students and faculty tour around British Columbia and visit rural tourism operators to address the need for enhanced knowledge exchange in tourism development within rural areas. The goal of the Tourism Research Innovation Project (TRIP) is to locate and share resources that support tourism development in rural areas among community leaders, tourism entrepreneurs, government agencies, students and academic institutions. While out on the road, the TRIP team, comprised of faculty and students from our University and College partners, visit different communities and talk with entrepreneurs and leaders about rural tourism initiatives. In response, they like to do things that assist the communities in some way — such as hosting a workshop or giving presentations.
Similarly, a community-university research alliance between VIU in Nanaimo and the District of Ucluelet played a key role in helping the District write, develop and implement its Official Community Plan over the past four years. Each summer, the District planner hires two Tourism students under VIU’s cooperative education program to workfor the District as planning assistants. This alliance was singled out as an “example of the world’s best practice” at an international competition in Hangzhou, China. Ucluelet won three prestigious awards for its “grassroots approach” to community planning at the United Nations Livable Communites (LivCom), Environmentally Sustainable Community Awards competition Nov. 14. The District received a gold award for its Official Community Plan (OCP), silver in the Most Livable Community category (population under 20,000), and top prize for Most Sustainable Community, beating out contending countries from around the world.
The Institute creates alliances between researchers, practitioners, students and communities that result in a) enhanced information for decision making, b) innovative community initiatives, c) increased public awareness, d) educational opportunities, and e) contributions to public policy debates. Benefits to students include opportunities to gain real life experiences in applied research projects; input on complex issues facing the field; opportunities for employment; and research and project management skill development.