Educational Pack: How to Conduct Effective Research with Undergraduate Students

Inside this educational pack, you will find expert advice and best strategies to implement when working with undergrads. Find out what the some of the biggest benefits are from having undergrads in your lab, and apply these recruiting startegies to ensure you find the best talent for your research.

Executive Report: Conduct Effective Research with Undergraduate Students (PDF)
(a $199 value) 

Undergrads have the distinct advantage of having minds “free from the kinds of pre-cut answers that we all acquire in our twenties and thirties, and they are perfectly willing to ask the kind of naive questions that will either probe your unspoken assumptions or point out places where you may have skipped steps in your reasoning as you set up the problem you seek to address,” says Dr. Thomas Blackburn, PhD, co-author of this report.

The biggest benefit to you of having undergrads working in your lab is the big career boost you’ll enjoy. Your mentorship of undergrads is yet another credibility-building and distinguished facet of your career as a leader and scientist. As you know from your own early years as a student, good mentorship often plays a deciding role in the careers of the most innovative and productive scientists and science faculty, Blackburn notes. 

Inside this 30-pg executive report, you will find insider advice for:

• How to Manage Undergrads — What’s Different, the Same (pg. 6)
• Choosing the Right Research Project (pg. 10)
• Get Your Project Funded with Special Grant (pg. 16)
• Recruiting Strategies: Attract Talented Undergrad (pg. 22)
• Examples of Undergrad Summer Research Programs (pg. 27)
• And More!

60-Minute On-Demand Webinar: Beyond the Grad Student — Teaching Undergraduates Through Research (a $197 value): 

Undergraduate research is a field of its own, experts say, and you shouldn’t enter it as a second choice to the R01 environment.

So what’s so different between the undergraduate and graduate/postgraduate labs? Not as much as you might think. Nonetheless, you need to know what you can expect from this generally younger group … especially your undergraduate research assistant.

This on-demand training will provide you with the tools and strategies for shaping your undergrad research project results into significant, publishable findings. You’ll learn which techniques, attitudes and research skills you should teach these new researchers.

5 Key Take-Aways:

• What you need to know to keep your project on track
• Some funders actively seek to support young scientists … Here’s where to look
• Networking opportunity: National organizations offer support for undergrad researchers
• Offer a life-changing experience – How to have a positive effect on your young advisee
• Learn from youth: Undergraduate research teaches you skills and attitudes that will last a lifetime