During the summer of 2017, I was a teaching assistant for Biology 260: Entering Research, a course designed to help undergraduates who are starting independent research projects in a lab. I served as the instructor for one section for the course (8 students) and we meet for one 2 hour session per week. Students came from many different disciplines, including biology, chemistry, psychology, and sociology. The course was mainly discussion based, and we covered topics such as developing good mentoring relationships, building your own research self efficacy, ethics in research, strategies for explaining your research to different audiences, and how to read scientific articles. Students made posters about their research and the course culminated in a poster session with students from all sections of the course. The University of Wisconsin - Madison published a news story about the course and associated scholarship program, available here.

The end of semester evaluation results that I received were combined for my section (eight students) and the other section of the course (fourteen students). Of the eleven total students who responded to the final survey, nine said that the facilitator was effective or very effective at guiding discussion during course activities and that they would likely or very likely recommend participating in the Entering Research activities. Five reported that the course contributed to their gains in research knowledge and ability as much as their research experience itself. Things that students would say when recommending the course to others included:

“It was helpful to take your research to the next level, allowed me to see the big picture of my research lab, and made me feel like I could write scientifically”

“It’s a great learning opportunity, especially for those who are just starting out in research, but still very useful for those who have experience in research.”

Negative points brought up by students included that we used too much class time for some activities and that they would have liked to work on more concrete skills like writing proposals and scientific papers.

Reflection

I really enjoyed teaching this course and getting to know my students. We discussed a lot of difficult questions in class, and for some of the students, this summer was their first exposure to science as a messy investigative process, rather than cleanly organized facts. Additionally, I think it was good for the students to talk about the logistical and human relationships part of conducting research. Good mentor relationships and realistic expectations are very important for being a successful student scientist.