Below are opportunities currently available for undergraduate students at A-State. If you are a student interested in one of these opportunities, please send an email to the contact provided. These opportunities will be updated every 4-6 weeks. If you are a faculty member or graduate student and you have an opportunity you would like to add to this page, please fill out this FORM.
EDUCATION & BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES
1. Arkansas Science Festival
Contact: Dr. Amy Pearce (apearce@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: Flexible, but typically 2-5 hours per week.
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Maybe
Length of Opportunity: Possibility of year-round, but the festival is held each October. Other months are dedicated to planning, reporting, and hosting smaller-scale events.
Brief description: The Arkansas Science Festival (ASF) is the first formal science festival organized and hosted in Northeast Arkansas as well as the State of Arkansas. ASF's goal is to celebrate science in informal settings. Your participation provides recognition for A-State and an opportunity for you to hone skills as a communicator of science. As there are a variety of events and formats, there are varied opportunities for involvement. You might help plan events, design surveys, collect data, recruit volunteers, engage with participating groups, update social media and websites, or more. The number of hours each week is flexible as is the length of your commitment.
2. The Influence of Schemas in Misinformation on False Memories
Contact: Adam Parker (adam.parker@smail.astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 1-6 hours
Paid: No
Academic Credit Available: No
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Until May 7
Brief description: This study will look at the the interaction between misinformation and schematic knowledge on the generation of false memories. Research assistants will help with data collection from participants, send reminders for participants to return after 48 hours, learn about the different steps of conducting research, help make conference posters for presentations, and more. This will be a great opportunity to gain experience and add to your resume.
3. Learning during COVID: A qualitative research study
Contact: Dr. Savannah Cormier (scormier@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: Up to student; Can be anywhere between 3-10 hours
Paid: No
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus, Off Campus, Remote/Virtual
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: For now - Fall 2021
Brief description: Currently working on a qualitative study on college student experiences learning during COVID 19. This opportunity includes research mentorship in qualitative research and transcribing, but may include qualitative research data coding and analysis if students are interested in more advanced opportunities.
LIBERAL ARTS & COMMUNICATION
1. com / Notes from the Search Bar
Contact: Dr. Andrea Davis (andavis@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 2-5 hours
Paid: No
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: Remote/virtual
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Ongoing
Brief description: AStateDH.com seeks contributors to Notes from the Search Bar, an editorially reviewed digital publication that uses short-form prose to communicate the significance of digital humanities research, projects, and tools to public audiences.
2. Memory and History: Transforming the Narrative of the Spanish Civil War and Francoist Dictatorship
Contact: Dr. Andrea Davis (andavis@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 4+ hours
Paid: No
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: Remote/virtual
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Ongoing
Brief description: Memory and History is a a collaborative digital project that critically analyzes and enhances access to audiovisual testimonies of militants, witnesses, and victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939), and Franco dictatorship (1939-1975). Advance Spanish-language skills are required, and duties may include, but are not limited to, translation and time-coding.
NEIL GRIFFIN COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
1. Financial Wellness of College Students
Contact: Dr. Philip Tew (ptew@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 10-15 hours
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Fall / Spring / Summer - this is an ongoing opportunity
Brief description: The Scarlet to Black Program is the financial literacy program on campus that promotes the financial wellness of college students, especially first-year students. The S2B Program is continually conducting research on a variety of areas related to financial / economic wellness of young people. The Program is open to new ideas / concepts / research ideas in this general area. Current research focuses on (a) nudge impacts on improving financial wellness of first year students, (b) impact on after-school program on elementary students' financial literacy knowledge, (c) health insurance literacy of college students, (d) financial literacy programs and students with autism, and (e) high school home access to fresh fruits and vegetables impact on budget problems as a college student.
COLLEGE OF SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS
1. Atmospheric chemistry and groundwater contamination
Contact: Dr. Hashim Ali (hali@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 5-15 hours
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Yes
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Semester by semester
Brief description: Work in research related to climate change and environmental remediation.
2. Testing Differentially Methylated Regions through Logistic Regression Analysis
Contact: Dr. Mohamed Milad (mmilad@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 12
Paid: Yes
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Maybe
Length of Opportunity: 12 weeks
Brief description: None provided
3. Investigating the physiology of the dental caries pathogen Streptococcus mutans
Contact: Dr. Robert Shields (rshields@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 8-12 hours
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Foreseeable future
Brief description: We are really interested in ambitious undergraduate microbiologists who want to join the team. A typical undergraduate commitment would be 8-12 hours of lab work each week. Projects will vary depending on interest, skills and time availability but here are some typical project outlines:
Types of undergraduate projects:
1) Functional genomics screens
2) Gene mutagenesis and characterization of mutant
3) Analysis of pre-exisiting data (e.g. RNAseq, genomic sequencing, etc)
4. Prevalence of mental health disorders amongst children in AR from a claims database
Contact: Dr. Sudeepa Bhattacharyya (sbhattacharyya@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 6-7 hours
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Brief description: Mental illnesses are among the most common health conditions in the United States and in Arkansas as well. This project will focus on using Arkansas healthcare claims data to report mental health outcomes in Arkansas, particularly looking at the prevalence of mental health disorders and related disparities amongst different segments of the population.
5. Anxiety Disorder diagnosis and following incidences of hospitalizations, ER visits and self-harm amongst the pediatric population in AR from the claims database.
Contact: Dr. Sudeepa Bhattacharyya (sbhattacharyya@astate.edu)
Estimated Weekly Time: 6-7 hours
Paid: Maybe
Academic Credit Available: Maybe
Location of Opportunity: On Campus
Possibility of Co-Authorship or Professional Presentation: Yes
Length of Opportunity: Fall 2021, Spring 2022
Brief description: Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental illnesses in children. In this project our aim will be to estimate incidences of mental health-related hospitalizations, treated self-harm, and emergency room visits in children newly diagnosed with anxiety disorders in AR from 2013-2018.
6. ABI Undergraduate Research Scholar Program
Contact: Apply for this opportunity - http://astate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eFeTzOjpmK0dUqi
Paid: Yes
Application deadline: October 6
Brief description: The ABI Undergraduate Research Scholars Program (URS) is dedicated to enhancing the academic experience of A-State students by providing first and second year undergraduates with opportunities to participate in research and creative works with A-State faculty and staff. Discovery and creativity are the cornerstones of our greatness as a university - in the sciences, engineering, the arts or the social sciences (not limited to the sciences). The experience of working with a faculty member who is pushing forward the frontiers of knowledge or creative expression will transform what students learn in the classroom into reality and relevance.
