The Office of Undergraduate Research is celebrating 10 years of Magellan Programs with a scavenger hunt to provide students with a creative way to share aspects of their research and win prizes.
Starting Monday, the office began posting prompts on Twitter and Facebook and will continue doing so for 10 weekdays leading up to Discovery Day on April 22. Students are asked to post a picture inspired by the daily prompt, and the person who posts the first entry they receive will win a T-shirt and tote bag and be put in a drawing for a Barnes and Noble gift card. All students are eligible to participate as long as they are following the office on social media and use the hashtag "#Magellan10."
“When it started 10 years ago, there was only one Magellan program, and now we have, 10 years later, 10 Magellan programs," assistant director Asheley Schryer said. "Everything from the Magellans are grants that we give students, to opportunities to get students involved in research, to opportunities to showcase their research."
The idea for the scavenger hunt came from a group of Magellan ambassadors, which is one of the programs that gives students opportunities to get involved in research and showcase it. They wanted to celebrate the milestone by getting as many students involved as possible.
The social media aspect of the scavenger hunt provides the ability to connect with students. The prompts have them show examples of research they're doing and what that research has meant to them. The first prompt was to post a picture with your mentor.
“We really believe in faculty-mentored research,” Schryer said. ”We really want students to be able to post a variety of ways to show all the different ways that research can be talked about.”
The scavenger hunt also hopes to increase attendance by students at Discovery Day, which is USC’s beyond-the-classroom experience showcase. This is a great place for students to not only present a variety of research, but also to see what their peers are doing and to learn more about something that interests them.
“You guys do so much in the classroom, and you learn so much," Schryer said. "But then to take what you’re learning and apply it beyond that classroom is so important."