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First Year Research Experience

Miami's Office of Research for Undergraduates sponsors the First Year Research Experience (FYRE) Program. FYRE aims to jumpstart student involvement in research and inquiry at the very start of their college experience. Since 2009, the program has engaged over 1,000 students in establishing meaningful relationships with Miami faculty, graduate students, and their peers outside of the traditional classroom setting. 

Required Courses

UNV 171: FY Research I and UNV 172:FY Research II

One or both courses are offered as the FYRE experience, with variable credit hours (1-3) based on instructor preference. A two semester sequence is offered with UNV 171 in the Fall, which introduces students to the disciplinary topic, and the research process specific to a project which is usually conducted in the Spring. Students present at the Spring undergraduate research forum in teams. UNV 172 can be offered as a stand alone as long as it addresses learning outcomes of the experience. This course counts for experiential learning credit.

The FYRE experience prepares students early on for subsequent independent research supervised by Miami faculty, or external research opportunities.

Fyre Learning Outcomes

UNV 171

This course will introduce students to the research enterprise in general, and research activities and resources at Miami, in particular. Furthermore, it allows students to discover the research process within a particular content area by participating in a hands-on research experience.

The course serves a number of purposes, such as: providing orientation and overview of relevant university resources, exposing students to examples of ongoing research at the university, covering content material on how to design and conduct research, locating and retrieving source material for research projects, designing an appropriate study to address a research question, and socializing students within a community of scholars.

It is expected that students will complete UNV 172 in the subsequent semester, after which they will be adequately trained to partake in supervised yet independent research or creative activity with a faculty mentor, or other similar endeavors of their choosing. 

UNV 171 Learning Outcomes

  • Identify the steps of the research process and how they lead to knowledge creation
  • Locate and evaluate various sources of information on a research topic
  • Identify and utilize resources for assistance in conducting research activities
  • Recognize different research and creative activities by both faculty and students occurring within multiple departments and programs across campus 
  • Develop an appropriate study to address a particular research question
  • Develop a reasonable and thoughtful professional development plan (PDP) to guide skill development and research-related activities over one's college career
  • Interact and perform productively in a group setting, including the development of meaningful relationships with faculty, staff, and peers

UNV 172

This course continues the student's training and experience in conducting research in the relevant content area. Specifically, whereas the focus in UNV 171 was on the design of a research project, this semester will focus on the implementation of the project, as well as the subsequent data analysis and presentation of results.

After completing this course, students will have conducted a research process from beginning to fruition, and will thus be adequately trained to partake in supervised yet independent research or creative activity with a faculty mentor.

The course serves a number of purposes, such as: practicing careful data collection, preparing data and conducting appropriate statistical analyses, scientific writing according to the conventions of the discipline, professionally presenting research results in a variety of formats, and socializing students within a community of scholars.

UNV 172 Learning Outcomes

  • Reliably complete the steps necessary to collect high-quality data for a research project
  • Identify the appropriate steps necessary to prepare data for further analysis
  • Identify the appropriate statistical techniques in order to use data to address hypotheses and potentially explore additional research questions
  • Identify the different types of scholarly communication and the benefits and limitations of each, and know when each is preferred and most effective
  • Recognize the importance of tailoring a message to different audiences (and do so) 
  • Produce and deliver an effective research poster and/or oral presentation
  • Draft and revise a manuscript according to the conventions of the discipline
  • Interact and perform productively in a group setting, including the development of meaningful relationships with faculty, staff, and peers