CURI Academic Year Researcher 25 - Fountaine bei St. Olaf College

Job Title: CURI Academic Year Student Researcher

Classification: Student Employee (non-exempt)

Name and Address of Employer: St. Olaf College, 1520 St. Olaf Ave, Northfield, MN 55057

If the position requires the student to work off campus, provide the name and address here:

Department Name: CURI

Unit Number (5 digits): 16118

Length of Position: See Employment Authorization  

Contact Person/Supervisor: Faculty advisor

Pay Rate (Check One)  Standard Hourly Rate  x  Supervisory/Special Skills Hourly Rate

Description of the Position: (Purpose of the Position): Students work together with a faculty member on scholarly or artistic projects. 

Project Title: Metabolic Cost of Pickleball

Faculty Mentor: Charles Fountaine

Project Description: The purpose of this proposed descriptive study is to explore the cardiovascular and metabolic costs of playing pickleball. Pickleball is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, with an annual growth rate of nearly 44% since 2019. Pickleball is also very popular at St. Olaf with 3 sections of pickleball activity courses (KINES 139) being offered both fall and spring. Despite its immense popularity, relatively few scientific studies have investigated pickleball, which presents an exciting opportunity for a CURI project. In the summer of 2025, the PI purchased a portable metabolic unit (VO2 Master) which will allow for real time data collection to be performed while an individual is playing pickleball, allowing for analysis of data such as but not limited to heart rate, oxygen consumption, and caloric expenditure, all of which will be able to more able to provide descriptive data on pickleball activity. The PI envisions a general timeline of recruiting subjects and establishing baseline fitness measures via traditional exercise physiology measures (max heart rate, maximal aerobic capacity) and then commencing with having the participants play pickleball while outfitted with the portable metabolic unit, allowing for data collection. This data collection and subsequent data analysis would last throughout fall semester. Projects such as determining the metabolic cost of activities is one of the primary research arms of the PI and presents an outstanding opportunity for undergraduate research to participate in a high impact practice at a level of scholarship that is well within the scope of an undergraduate.

Transferable Skills: Research and presentations.

Duties and Responsibilities: Each project has its own timing (number of hours per week and number of weeks), as determined by the individual faculty mentor. See the CURI Digital Olaf database for individual project descriptions and details.

Qualifications: (Education/Experience/Skills) A student interested in applying for the CURI academic year program must be enrolled as an on-campus St. Olaf student. There is no GPA requirement that must be met in order to apply for the program, but a student’s academic record will be considered during the selection process. Skills are dependent on individual projects.

If you don’t have a work award and select, No, to the application questions your application will be automatically rejected by the system. If you apply and are rejected please contact Erin Eltonga to resolve this for you.

This job description is for general information purposes.  It is not intended to list all duties and responsibilities of the position.  This job description is subject to change at any time by St. Olaf College, with or without prior notice.