Cooperative projects between UBC students and your research group or company can be win-win. From the perspective of teaching and learning, students show higher levels of interest and motivation when working on 'real' chemistry problems. They engage with more high-order learning objectives, as described by Bloom's taxonomy, have improved opportunity to develop problem-solving skills, and are more invested in presenting their work. From the research standpoint, you gain access to enthusiasm, new ideas, and chemistry department equipment. You raise the profile of your company or research group within the Chemistry Department community, helping you attract the best possible talent in future.
Projects are typically 4 or 8 month in duration (approx 12-16 hours/week) and involve one 4th year student. 4 month projects are usually designed to begin in September or January, while 8 month projects must begin in September. Work may be at UBC, at your location, or a combination. Shorter projects, involving 8-24 hours of lab work, can also be arranged for 4th year students. These might involve communicating a project goal to a pair of students and allowing them to develop the approach, collect the data and draw conclusions.
For the 4 or 8 month projects, students are enrolled in a project-course and earn course credits for their work on the project and its presentation (poster and written report). Confidentiality of the work is addressed on an individual case basis; while details of the work may remain confidential the student must always be able to present the work so that progress may be assessed and a course grade awarded.
We have had students work successfully with:
Please get in touch with Dr. Robin Stoodley if you're interested in setting up a cooperative project.