Undergraduate Research. 17 
first meeting and they expressed as deep a wish to cooperate with us as 
we did with them. Too often in the past, research work has been considered 
only in the light of its immediate results and we have found that our reso- 
lution has been so misconstrued. Consequently, we have made the follow- 
ing explanation and introduction to our resolution. 
“The Scientech Club desires to emphasize in connection with the thesis re- 
quirement for graduation its conception of the term “investigation” as dis- 
tinct from the commonly accepted concept of research. It recognizes clear- 
ly that the knowledge and ability necessary for a real contribution to human 
knowledge cannot be expected of many men of senior standing in our uni- 
versities and colleges; that the ability to do research work is possessed by 
few, and in varying degrees. To demand a piece of real research of the 
student as a thesis is not the aim of the Club. It desires that the student 
undertakes during the fourth undergraduate year of study the soiution of a 
scientific problem which will afford the means of developing in him initia- 
tive, resourcefulness, power of logical deduction, and the ability to think 
for himself. The objective need not be research in the sense of a new con- 
tribution, but should be original to the student with respect to his previous 
knowledge thereof and should consist of his individual efforts in the solu- 
tion of such a problem and not alone of a compilation or review of existing 
literature on the subject. 
“The Club believes that the fulfillment of the above thesis requirement 
under the conditions laid down in the resolutions. will in all instances 
prove a great mental asset to the individual irrespective of his future activ- 
ities, will induce in great measure the development of latent research 
ability in the student body, and will distinctly promote the research atmos- 
phere of the institution. 
One of the university representatives compared the chemical department 
of Johns Hopkins University with its few courses and stimulating creative 
atmosphere to that of the University of Minnesota where countless courses 
only, seem to abound. Education should consist of training in judgment, 
resourcefulness and the ability to create rather than to encourage merely 
the amassing of facts. It does seem useless to give courses in obsolete 
industrial technique at the expense of investigation and yet we are told 
that our curricula are too crowded to include research. Any student who 
has had a thorough course in quantitative chemistry need not spend a half 
year applying that knowledge over again in a course of water analysis. Our 
educational institutions must furnish the spark to kindle the tinder of crea- 
tive ability wherever it exists. 
It is not commonly accepted by educators that the student will most 
rapidly develop the right mental attitude by discovering facts for himself— 
even if they were known before? Are we conserving our greatest resource, 
the power of creative thinking? My own university experience says “No.” 
Each man must acquire the fundamentals of scientific inquiry to succeed 
no matter what profession he takes up. We are not asking the universities 
to produce genius, nor that the undergraduate research be of practical 
value—but we do ask for better trained men—men who have found them- 
selves in a slight measure at least in their vocation. 
We do feel that our schools as a whole have not been doing all within 
their power to utilize their equipment in the past. Nor has industry done 
