Undergraduate Research Team: The Life of the Garden

Presenting research to Senator Will Kraus at the state capitol

Description of the Project

Our interdisciplinary team of five undergraduate students working under Dr. Galen (Biology) and Dr. Chang (English) studied the novel The Secret Garden in ecological and cross-cultural contexts. We presented our research at the MU Undergraduate Research and Creative Achievements Forum and received the Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research in the Humanities.

Importance of Project

The Life of the Garden was one of the pilot projects for the Mizzou Advantage Undergraduate Research Teams program. Its success inspired and enabled further interdisciplinary projects.

Tasks Completed

  • Compared firsthand poetic and prose accounts of real English gardens contemporary to the fictional garden described in the novel

  • Collaborated with a journalism major, an information technology major, an English major, and a biology major to explore the connections between our research findings and create a professional poster.

  • Created a wiki and hypertext to display our findings in web-based format

  • Presented at four poster sessions, including the one pictured above at the state capitol

  • Presented for Dr. Galen's biology class the next year, to showcase the value of literary and interdisciplinary research

Benefits and Challenges of Interdisciplinary Research

Benefits

  • Gaining a greater understanding of the novel

  • Exploring a topic from the perspective of different disciplines

  • Building experience in working as a team

  • Modeling new methodologies for ecological and literary study

  • Developing directions for future interdisciplinary collaborations

Challenges

  • Identifying a common methodological language

  • Coordinating meeting schedules

  • Staying informed of each member's research progress