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April 2016
Bring a snack to lab everyday and take the time to eat it. If the lab doesn’t have a designated food area, excuse yourself to the hallway, the lobby, or outside for a few minutes when needed.
If you start your lab after your classes are wrapped up for the day, that snack can make all the difference in your ability to get work done, to focus on a challenging problem, or to let it go when a labmate is irritating.
If your research supervisor, PI, or labmate asks, “How late can you stay at the lab today?” don’t answer with: “Whenever—it doesn’t matter.” Because it does matter.
If you give an open-ended answer, you might find yourself finishing at 4 AM, exhausted and hangry (especially if you already ate your snacks and the vending machine takes your money without giving you food).
Remember, research might not be a 9 to 5 activity for the labmate who’s asking. Always give a time window even if it isn’t precise such as “4:30 to 5:30,” or your absolute cut-off time “7 PM.”
For most new researchers, lab work turns out to be more difficult and more complicated than anticipated--even with a solid background of lab classes. It takes time to gain the skills needed to be successful and learn proper technique.
Submitted by undergrad-admin
This guest post is by Jacob Landis, a Grad In The Lab, who shares his perspective as a teaching assistant to undergrads in a lab course.
Molecular phylogenetics is used in a wide array of studies including those focused on plant systematics, diversity of birds, and tracking infectious diseases, just to name a few. Recently, we decided to incorporate a module for molecular phylogenetics into an undergraduate introductory lab class to expose students to practices done in some research labs.
What I like to do in my lab classes is to teach practical skills that students can take with them, and hopefully build upon once they get into a research lab.
