SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, Preparing Students for Graduate School

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:40:31 GMT

Graduate students are often required to spend a good portion of their education as researchers. The Undergraduate Research program at MU offers students a preview of what graduate school is all about. Blockus explains that the summer research program is helpful to students considering graduate education: “Students who do research in the summer get a real taste of that so they can confirm that that’s what they want to do.” The undergraduate students regularly work with professors, scholars, and post-doctorate fellows during the course of their research.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, Making a Difference

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:36:23 GMT

Even though the student researchers are usually not going to get their studies published in an academic journal, these researchers have an opportunity to make a difference with their findings. For example, every summer approximately twenty researchers go to Jefferson City to present their finding to lawmakers. “We work with the students to take their posters, turn those posters into something that very accessible to the public and elected officials,” Blockus explains. “This is our way of reminding the state officials of some of the things we do, and the special ways we are adding value to student experiences here at MU.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, Research isn’t all about the work

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:41:42 GMT

Some of the images that people have about research include laboratories, as well as boring and solitary confinement. Well, Blockus tries to dispel some of these misconceptions. These undergraduate researchers have an opportunity to work one-on-one with researchers from a variety of countries (including Pakistan, South Korea, Australia, England, and Israel). “It really helps broaden their understanding of how science is a global experience” says Blockus. “The students are really working in a team environment, learning how to interact with other people on projects.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, Not just at MU

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 18:42:28 GMT

Student researchers have an opportunity to present their research at academic conferences across the country. Not only do they get to expose their work to a new audience, but they can also observe other projects outside of MU. “There are plenty of opportunities for students to see what’s happening not only in their own research group, but also in other research groups,” Blockus says. In the past, undergraduate researchers have traveled to major cities including Chicago, San Francisco, and New York City. “That’s a really neat experience,” she explains, “whether it is interacting with other scholars on campus or with scholars across the country or world.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Linda Blockus - Linda Blockus, A Road Not Forgotten

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:37:56 GMT

The undergraduate research experience is a unique opportunity. Blockus reports that aside from preparing students for graduate school, research is a growth experience in which students will be “perhaps encountering some of the same frustrations, challenges, and problems as well as some of the same successes and accomplishments.” She observes that students “learn from each other, feed off of each other, and hopefully form friendships as well.” Blockus herself is living proof of the power of research on a young mind. As a college student she spent a summer working for the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, OARDC, a “very valuable experience.”