Introduction

The Wyoming INBRE welcomes you to the world of scientific research! Regardless of what your career goals may be or where your exposure to research may ultimately lead you, we hope that you’ll find this experience to be interesting, enjoyable, and rewarding. Much of our daily life is built upon the concepts, technologies, and everyday products of research and innovation. We hope that acquiring new knowledge and learning some of the key principles that underlie the scientific process will be useful to you for understanding the world, making informed decisions, and perhaps influencing where you decide to focus your life’s work.

We begin this document with some context about why you might want to pursue undergraduate research and how to go about doing that. We then jump into some of the challenges of doing scientific research and key concepts that you’ll want to learn along the way. This is not meant to be a worksheet or an instruction manual that hands you all the answers. It’s more of a guide that you can revisit over time as you develop as a researcher. Ideally, you’ll discuss these concepts and questions with your mentors and fellow researchers.

Throughout this text, look for resource symbols superscript (^R1, ^R2, etc.,) indicating web-based information (listed at the end) that is directly relevant to that section.

Why should I pursue an undergraduate research experience? ^R1

• To learn more about areas that interest me and discover new fields of research I had not considered
• To interact with faculty, graduate students, postdocs, scientists, peers, and outside professionals
• To learn to use instruments, libraries, databases, and software
• To apply course learning to authentic, hands-on, scientific investigation
• To engage in creativity through project design, problem-solving, presenting, and writing
• To feel pride in completing projects, presenting research data, and co-authoring publications
• To gain inspiration and confidence to continue in the research process, such as by pursuing graduate studies or working in a research-related field
• To gain practical experience with the scientific method
• To learn how to ask and answer scientific questions

Finding Research Opportunities ^R1

• Look for opportunities for fellowships, internships, scholarships, or research credit
• Find an advisor by:
  • Talking with a current instructor during student hours
  • Talking to peers who are in research groups/teams
  • Gettng introductions from advisors to research-active faculty
  • Searching faculty websites and published papers
  • Emailing faculty directly
  • Asking about the possibility to volunteer in a lab

Once you are invited into a research experience, whether it’s a paid or volunteer position, a lab rotation, or for research credit ^R2

• Spend time reading key papers and background materials
• Be curious and ask questions
• Show you are present and interested during lab meetings
• Be professional by responding to emails, showing up on time, and communicating clearly if any issues come up
• Be a good lab citizen. Research is a team effort, and your lab mates may come from very different backgrounds and have points of view that differ from your own. Treat everyone with respect, do your share of group tasks, and give credit generously.

Settng Early Expectations ^R1,R2

Now that you are on the path to becoming an undergraduate researcher, let’s cover one of the most basic truths of scientific research: Learning to do science is challenging for everyone! Whether this is your first experience working in an academic research lab or even your fifth, know that at times the amount of information coming at you may feel overwhelming. This is a normal reaction, and there are several good reasons why everyone feels this way (see below). But first take a heartfelt note from Martin Schwartz who wrote the brilliant essay, “The importance of stupidity in scientific research” (linked below). He writes, Science makes me feel stupid too. It’s just that I’ve gotten used to it. So used to it, in fact, that I actively seek out new opportunities to feel stupid. I wouldn’t know what to do without that feeling. I even think it’s supposed to be this way (Schwartz, M.A., 2008, Ref 1).

• Individual scientific fields typically accumulate a staggering amount of information over their long histories. Absorbing even a fraction of that knowledge—just the parts that pertain directly to your project—will take considerable time and effort. At times, this can feel like drinking from a firehose. It’s also a great opportunity to learn and grow. Try to find a learning pace and style that is comfortable for you.
• Scientific lingo can be difficult to penetrate. Like all technical fields, science has lots of acronyms and other shorthand terms. These can be quite useful once you know the lingo but are an impediment to those who are new to the discipline. The only solution is to gradually become familiar with the relevant terms and concepts. When you hear something you don’t understand, ask for clarification or make a note and look it up later.
• More generally, scientific research will almost certainly feel quite different than any work experience you’ve previously had. Good science requires an unusually high level of precision, attntion to detail, and sustained focus. These are skills in themselves; they can be improved upon over time and applied to many other work environments. At the same time, despite all our best intentions, failure is a common everyday part of doing science! It’s just something you have to get used to and is not a sign that you don’t belong. An experiment that doesn’t work out the way you’d hoped often teaches you something and sometimes an unexpected result opens a question that is more interesting than the one you started with.
• Related to the above points, there is a strong culture built around the premise that gettng the science right requires deep and rigorous thinking, careful planning, ongoing self-reflection, and honest but direct input from other scientists. Learning how to receive critical input, as well as providing it to others in a constructive way, is an essential skill and underscores the point that science is a community effort. It’s what allows science to be continuously advancing, self-correcting, and to stand the test of time. One example of this is the long-standing scientific peer review process where most publications and grants are critically assessed by experts in the field to determine if the studies pass muster. On a more general daily level, learning what your communication style is and that of others will allow you to have more transparent conversations and have a greater awareness of how to give and receive feedback.
• It’s totally normal to go through highs and lows during your research career. You will progress from an enthusiastic beginner—when the expectations that you and others place on you are relatively low—to a more seasoned researcher, who might stumble as your confidence drops, even as your competence is increasing. Building resilience in scientific training, which is similar to the resilience you need for life in general, helps to get all of us through this process. Just know that the path toward becoming an independent scientific researcher is rarely, if ever, a straight one. Expect to have setbacks and know that how you respond to those setbacks is often what will dictate your ultimate success in the lab (also see Refs 2, 3).

This model, originally developed for workplace leadership, has since been adapted for many fields. Applied to research training, it starts with an honest look at where you are in learning a given skill or task, so that you and your mentor can match the right mix of guidance and support as you build confidence and resilience and move toward independence. Figure adapted from Blanchard et al., 1985, Ref.

Key Scien)fic Concepts You’ll Want to Learn ^R2

Generally speaking, the goal of most scien:sts is to (i) ask good questions, (ii) come up with appropriate experiments to address those questions, (iii) generate quality data through successful experiments, and (iv) ultimately make sound conclusions based on what the data tell you. Needless to say, all of that’s easier said than done! Even accomplished scientists with many years of experience run up against unexpected complications, confusing findings, and plenty of flat out failures. Don’t worry about that now! Your goal as a student entering into research is to learn the process by which good science is carried out, regardless of whether your individual experiments work or give you the results you were expecting or hoping for.

Below we provide a list of foundational concepts and standard scientific practices—phrased in the form of questions—that you’ll want to become comfortable with. In fact, you’ll want these topics in the front of your mind while you’re planning, carrying out, and interpreting your data. But know that for some of these questions, there may not always be a clear-cut or simple answer. If you want to learn more now, as a star:ng point, you can check out the sites we’ve highlighted below2. You could also use AI to explore some of these concepts on your own but see our section at the end about using AI. Finally, be sure to discuss these subjects with your research mentors along with lab mates, all of whom can be a great source of information andinsights.