Community Research and Service Minor

UC Merced’s purposeful location in the San Joaquin Valley and nearby Sierra Nevada, a region characterized by disadvantages in the environment, economics, education, health, and civic engagement, invites this academic program that focuses on ways to transform poverty into prosperity. Addressing the complexity of local, regional and global poverty requires the knowledge and problem solving strategies from diverse academic fields. This minor highlights the role of community-engaged research (CEnR), an approach to problem solving based on academic-community collaboration. Problem solving through CEnR leads to both scholarly and community benefits.

CEnR skills developed in the Community Research and Service (CRS) minor complement training provided in all academic majors. Students can apply the concepts and research methods they have learned in engineering, natural sciences, social sciences, humanities, or arts to improving the quality of life locally, regionally, and more broadly. The following three themes define the minor.

Analytics of Prosperity: understanding data and using scientific measures to ensure that our activities actually improve quality of life
Sustainability: taking environmentally, economically, and socially sound approaches to growing prosperity, and
Community-engaged innovation: identifying new problems and solving old problems in new ways via collaboration that values local knowledge.

CRS coursework and field experiences engage students in these themes while working with non-profit, government, and industry partners on real-life problems in the San Joaquin Valley and nearby Sierra Nevada. Problems within these regions often have analogues in other national and international emerging economies, which may facilitate collaboration and training opportunities outside UC Merced’s region. Central to the CRS minor is an experience that provides students with practical research and collaborative problem solving that is intended to enhance professional development including skills that are sought out by professional and community leaders.

Lower Division Minor Requirement [4 units]

CRS 010: Introduction to Community Engaged Research [4 units]

Upper Division Minor Requirements [16 units]

One upper division course in the area of “methods” [4 units]

“Methods” refers to the fundamental course(s) in each academic discipline that prepare students in ways of designing and conducting research; asking and answering questions and analyzing results; and producing creative works. This list is illustrative and not exhaustive. Students must receive approval from the CRS Minor Faculty Advisor for any course not listed here.

ANTH 170: Ethnographic Methods [4 units]
BIO 175: Biostatistics [4 units]
BIOE 150: Bioengineering Design [3 units]
CSE 100: Algorithm Design and Analysis [4 units]
CSE 170: Computer Graphics [4 units]
ECON 100: Intermediate Microeconomic Theory [4 units]
ECON 130: Econometrics [4 units]
ENVE 105: Environmental Data Analysis [3 units]
ENVE 155: Decision Analysis in Management [4 units]
ENVE 190: Environmental Engineering Capstone Design [3 units]
ESS 132: Applied Climatology [3 units]
GASP 133: Theory and Method of Ethnomusicology [4 units]
GASP 171: Museums as Contested Sites [4 units]
GASP 172: Curatorial Methods and Practices [4 units]
GEOG 141: Environmental Science and Policy [4 units]
HIST 100: The Historian’s Craft [4 units]
ME 170: Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design [3 units]
MGMT 130: Econometrics [4 units]
MSE 120: Materials Capstone Design [3 units]
PH 111: Social Epidemiology [4 units]
PH 112: Research Methods: Health Services Research and Public Health [4 units]
PH 115: Research Methods for Public Health: GIS Mapping [4 units]
POLI 170: Theoretical Models of Politics [4 units]
POLI 175: Advanced Analysis of Political Data [4 units]
SOC 170: Qualitative Research Methods [4 units]
SOC 175: Topics in Advanced Sociological Research Methods [4 units]
SPAN 107: Spanish for Health Professionals [4 units]
SPAN 108: Spanish for Business and Management [4 units]

Two upper division courses that explore sustainability, analytics of prosperity, or community engaged innovation [8 units]

This list is illustrative and not exhaustive. Students must receive approval from the CRS Minor Faculty Advisor for any course not listed here.

One community-based undergraduate research course* [4 units]

SSHA discipline-based 195 course
PH 181: Public Health Research [4 units]
ENGR 197: Engineering Service Learning [1-2 units]
* Completing CRS 010 is a prerequisite for having the undergraduate research experience count for the CRS minor.

Note

As new courses become available they will be added as options to the upper division electives. A list of course offerings each semester that can count for this requirement will be made available to students. Students may be able to satisfy the requirements for the minor using additional courses that are not listed. However, students must receive approval from the CRS Minor Faculty Advisor before completion of their course work.