Regarding basic science research, the opportunities are as follows that I’m aware of:
- Students who do very well in a course are often hired to do research with a professor either on a work study or for credit basis;
- On an overlapping basis, a lot of students do spring semester research through the Oxford Research Scholar program and make presentations some time in late spring. Examples of some projects that were undertaken last year include: http://oxford.emory.edu/academics/centers-institutes-programs/pierce-institute/leadership/research-scholars-program/
- Emory's SURE summer research program is available to fund research for students from both campuses. http://college.emory.edu/undergraduate-research/index.html
- Some students do summer research with Oxford professors outside of SURE.
- There's an ongoing research project on the Oxford campus involving breast cancer research that involves undergraduates.
- The biology courses offered at Oxford are typically of the Inquiry variety (designated INQ or Q) and involve a lot of hands on, hypothesis driven research, written reports and oral presentations. You'll see this beginning in Biology 141Q, which is the intro biology class, all the way through the advanced courses offered at the Oxford campus. This is much more the case with Oxford science courses than Emory College science classes.
If you’re taking 2 lab sciences a semester, as many do as freshman and/or sophomores, it’s probably impractical to also be undertaking outside undergraduate research as well as the time commitments are probably too much.