Teaching Research Skills In Summer Undergraduate Research Programs

Abstract

High-quality research skills are an essential component in successfully navigating the graduate school process. The focus of this work is to describe a successful approach to teaching research skills to undergraduate students by combining laboratory experience with weekly instructional seminars in an attempt to foster future success in graduate school. This approach was designed and implemented for a ten-week summer research experience program for undergraduate students. The weekly instructional seminar series addressed research skills in three key areas: communication, investigation, and documentation.