AN INTERDISCIPLINARY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH PROGRAM AT BUFFALO STATE

For the past two summers Buffalo State has received NCUR/Lancy Foundation funding to support an undergraduate research program. The objective of the NCUR/Lancy program is to provide funding for interdisciplinary summer research programs that span the academic disciplines and are unified around a common theme. The central theme of our collaborative research focused on environmental and social changes in Buffalo over the past century. Buffalo’s celebration of the centennial of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition made this research focus especially timely. Examples of some research topics selected by the students include: physical changes to the Buffalo River; environmental impacts in the development of the Buffalo harbor; changes in the urban landscape; reuse of industrial buildings; water diversion and Niagara Falls; and water quality and community environmentalism. This poster presentation will describe the structure of the program at Buffalo State, including the participant selection process, weekly schedule of the eight week-long program, and our use of theater set design techniques to construct an installation to present the research results. We will also highlight lessons we learned from our experience and offer strategies for implementing a successful interdisciplinary research program.