Find Research Classes
Find Research Classes
Many students at UNC start their research in a class. Taking a class is a great way to find out what research is like in a particular field, to learn techniques for conducting research, and to begin to do your own research. Students who don’t have time to pursue research outside class also find this a great way to work on projects they care about while leaving time for extracurricular activities, athletics, jobs, and other responsibilities.
There are many classes that involve research principles, but the Office for Undergraduate Research has identified some courses that make research a major component of the class. The best place to find research classes in the new Ideas in Action curriculum is through the curriculum database.
These courses also count toward some of the requirements of the Carolina Research Scholar Program.
- Research Introduction Courses: IDST 198 (formerly IDST 184) and IDST 199 (formerly IDST 194) are one-credit, pass-fail courses that introduce students to research in a variety of fields. In each class session, different researchers from UNC (IDST 199) or triangle-area companies and non-profits (IDST 198) talk to students about their research and what research looks like in their fields.
- Research Exposure Courses: Research Exposure Courses introduce you to research on a particular topic or in a specific field, and include at least one fully-realized research project as part of coursework. Many, but not all, Research Exposure Courses have a graduate student who serves as a consultant to help you with the research project. These “Graduate Research Consultants” (GRCs) are only there to coach you—they do not grade your work.
- Research Methods Courses: These courses will teach you the methods that scholars in a given discipline use to pursue research questions. Consult your department’s course catalog or Director of Undergraduate Studies to learn about courses that teach research methods.
- Research Intensive Courses: In these courses, more than half the coursework is devoted to conducting original research and presenting research conclusions. Courses numbered 195, 295, 395, 495, 595, or 695 are reserved for undergraduate research experiences. Review the course catalog to obtain course descriptions and specifics about any prerequisites for these courses, since each department is responsible for their own course offerings. Most departments also offer other courses that include a substantial research component, but since the amount of time devoted to the research component can change depending on the particular instructor, those courses are not listed here. Questions about specific courses should be addressed to the Director of Undergraduate Studies of the relevant department (in the College), or to the person in charge of undergraduate studies in the professional school offering the course.
- Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences: Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CURE) courses introduce students to research by engaging a class in a hypothesis-driven research problem. These courses redesign course-based laboratory experiences to include more inquiry and undergraduate research experiences, especially to benefit underrepresented minorities, first-generation students, and students with little research experience.