Meeting Abstract
Our lab is interested in understanding how organisms respond to environmental stressors by evaluating the stress response at multiple levels of biological organization with high temporal resolution. However, conducting experiments that assess changes at the molecular to whole organismal level at multiple time points requires extensive planning and a concerted effort from a group of well-trained scientists. We found in a recent study that undergraduates, with guidance and training, can provide invaluable assistance in large-scale experiments. Our students aided in data collection and, more importantly, helped to develop protocols, design equipment, coordinate other students to successfully execute measurements of multiple phenotypes throughout an intensive, week-long sampling regime, and analyze data. This provides the undergraduates with an unmatched learning experience: students get first-hand knowledge of what it takes to conduct large experiments; they have ownership over the aspects of the experiments they helped develop; and they receive training along every step of the process. This synergy benefits all members of the team and helps improve the quality of science being conducted. From our experience, we have created a working model of large-scale undergraduate research, which offers unique opportunities for building successful research teams and enables multi-scale experimental designs that can help resolve complex biological problems (funded by NSF IOS-1557500).
