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Education Through Research

In 1998 Colby won a prestigious three-year Award for the Integration of Research in Education (AIRE) grant from the National Science Foundation. The grant recognized that Colby was already a national leader in the way it used research as a pedagogical tool, and it provided substantial funding to incorporate even more research into the curriculum across the disciplines. Discovery-based learning has been shown to improve critical thinking and collaborative learning skills. The AIRE grant and other resources have been applied to achieve the goal of engaging even more students--in the natural sciences and other disciplines--in significant research projects that lead to presentations at professional meetings and to refereed publications.

Expanding Research Opportunities

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A new program that opens extraordinary opportunities for Colby students to do biomedical research at world-class research labs is up and running. Begun in 2001 with a $5.5-million National Institutes of Health grant, the Biomedical Research Infrastructure Network (BRIN 8) is a consortium that links Colby and three other Maine schools with the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory and the Jackson Laboratory, both world-renowned research facilities in Bar Harbor. Colby scientists (students and faculty) are particularly excited about opportunities in the new field of comparative genomics--mapping the human genome by comparing human genes to genes from mice and marine species, which are 98-percent similar. Dean of Faculty Ed Yeterian said, "These scientists from the laboratories in Bar Harbor are people that the students have been reading about in their courses--world-class researchers." In addition to opportunities during the academic year, BRIN offers students a 10-week summer research program (with free room and board and a generous stipend) to work one-on-one with senior research scientists.

Some Current Faculty/Student Research

The Impact of Monetary Policy and Unanticipated Events on Stock Market Value

Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

The Psychological Impact of American Public School Systems on Black Child Development

6-Thioguanine, A Double-Edged Sword in Cancer Research

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring: Was It Ever Silent?

Separating Out Brain Circuits to Study Their Role in Mediating Behavior

The Influence and Evolution of the Iroquois During European Colonization

Future of Vaccine Development: Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Patterns of Mercury and Antibiotic Resistance in Bacteria of Upstream and Downstream Sediments of the Governor Hill Hatchery, Augusta, Maine

Academic Organizations

Alpha Kappa Delta (sociology)
Chemistry Club
Computing Club
Delta Phi Alpha (German)
Economics Club
French Club
Geology Club
German Club
Omicron Delta Upsilon (economics)
Phi Beta Kappa
Physics Society
Pi Sigma Alpha (political science)
Psi Chi (psychology)
Psychology Club
Raging Species (biology)
Sigma Delta Pi (Spanish)
Spanish Club
Student Women in Science