I have a few undergraduate students working in my lab for part of the summer. They started this week. Working with undergrads is something I do every summer---well, except for last summer, when I was on maternity leave. So you'd think I'd remember, at this point, how the drill goes: how to get them up and running, how much time and attention they need, etc.
Apparently I forgot a lot in a year.
I've forgotten how little undergrads know when they start out---even the best and brightest of them. I've forgotten that they don't know "the rules of the lab", or how to "do" research, or what I mean when I say "analyze this data" or "collect this data" or even "ssh into this machine and edit this script".
I've forgotten that they don't necessarily know vi, or emacs, or how to execute various Unix commands.
I've forgotten that I can't just say "read up on X so that you have enough of an idea of the background of what we're doing"---that I have to be more specific: "read this chapter in this book, and pay special attention to the section on Y, because you'll need to know that for the next experiment." I've also forgotten that they don't necessarily have the intellectual background necessary for the project: they may not have taken the related elective yet, or have the proper math background. And so we have to work around this deficit or find a way to get them up to speed, quickly.
I've forgotten that they don't know how to write for a technical audience.
So this week, I'm doing a lot more coaching, hand-holding, and side-by-side work with my students than I planned. There are things I planned on getting done that will just have to wait. But I know that this is relatively short-lived, that in a couple of weeks my undergrads will be comfortable in the lab and acting like old pros---well, kind of. At the very least, they won't require so much hand-holding, and I will hopefully be marveling, as I've done in the past, at how much these students are able to accomplish and learn in such a short time.
Education & Careers
