Undergraduate students participating in Christopher Quick's research class
early in their academic careers, but then they use up their three, six, or nine credit hours and they're done,” Quick said. “The problem is, that's right when they start becoming exceptionally productive and begin to like it; they begin to see if research is something they want to incorporate into their careers or if they want a different career path with the opportunities research can give them.” In response to that, Quick created a research-based course, at first incorporating undergraduates into his graduate physiology class. “My undergraduates did better than my graduate students. They were very motivated because they didn't have an opportunity to do real research,” Quick said. “Then I brought in freshmen and sophomores and they did even better. They were even more motivated and more interested.” Working with other VTPP faculty, he created a class structure that allowed freshmen to enter a researchbased course, through which they 66 | BIMS MAGAZINE // FALL 2018
could generate real ideas and conduct actual research, and then follow that project into their sophomore and junior years. Their senior year, they complete a capstone class that integrates research and service. Students who followed this plan became eligible for a new Biomedical Research and Development Certificate in one of two tracks—an experimental path that allows students to design an experiment, test it, and report their findings, or a mathematical modeling path that allows students to explore and make predictions about physiological functions. “I teach mathematical modeling of the cardiovascular system and analysis of data. The BIM students seem to enjoy that,” Quick said. “If you ask them, they hate math, but when you can apply it to something, it becomes a lot more real. “The types of research we get involved with is clinically relevant: heart failure—how does the heart adapt? Kidney function, shock,
hemorrhaging, intracranial pressure increases with stroke,” he said. “It's something they're engaged with, but it connects the basic science with something that is relevant to them.” Today, the certificate program is the only of its kind on campus and while its enrollment mostly comprises BIMS students, students from across the university participate. “It's challenging to run, but the students have really good ideas that turn into papers we can present at conferences,” Quick said. “I have students working on manuscripts in their sophomore year because it helps clarify their direction; it allows faculty and other students to see it and give feedback. It takes a long time to write a manuscript, but we start early and we work on projects that have a good chance of getting published, so we have a lot of work going on right now.”
Creating a Scholarly Community
The thought of having hundreds of research-curious students who