Category Archives: Collaboration

Collaboration

University drops test scores from graduate-admissions criteria

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PhD students have led a successful push for greater inclusivity of under-represented groups in science, technology, engineering and maths.

{credit}Cody Anthony Hernandez{/credit}

Above, GRIT co-founders Cody Hernandez, Christina Roman, and Mat Perez-Neut, PhD students at the University of Chicago in Illinois, take a break.

By Kendall Powell

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How to mentor undergraduates as a postgraduate, and why it’s important

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Spending more time mentoring undergraduates as a postgrad is good for everyone, says Jenn Summers.

To-do lists work for some, but a more holistic approach to researcher development may bring larger rewards.{credit}By FOTO:Fortepan — ID 2278: Adományozó/Donor: Unknown. [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons{/credit}

There’s a difference between mentoring and doling out to-do lists. This is something I’ve learned over the past year, my first as a mentor. Mentoring undergrads became part of my job only recently – in the past, research came first. Most advisors value research outcomes over mentoring, and departments certainly place more value on publications. Before this past year, I was used to just a single undergrad working in my lab, and I thought of them as worker bees, not as future colleagues.

Put simply: I did not think about teaching in the lab.

Now, after guidance from recent research on mentoring, I realize that if graduate students like myself were more invested in mentoring, there would be many more small-but-important teaching opportunities.

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Communicating your research: get it right, do it often. It really matters.

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Good communication is what makes the world go around, and it is neglected in scientific research, says Kate Christian.

The typical scientist, and particularly the typical early-career scientist, is so busy focusing on their research and their outputs (and grant applications and publishing and more grant applications and more publishing) that they don’t give priority to communicating their research, or even their successes, outside of that framework.

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New uses for everyday items: #ReviewForScience lab lessons from MacGyver

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2018-03-27 12_26_23-#reviewforscience hashtag on TwitterThe hashtag #ReviewForScience has revealed surprising new uses for everyday objects in the lab. Alane Lim highlights her favourites.

In an episode of the original series of MacGyver, starring Richard Dean Anderson as the secret-agent-cum-improviser who “busts bad guys and solves problems,” Anderson’s character builds an airplane out of bamboo and trash bags to make a getaway.

That particular contraption might not be entirely plausible, but the thought is there. You can find surprising uses for things originally intended for different purposes (making toy trucks our of shoe boxes and bottle caps, for example) .

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Still more gender differences are identified

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Gender gaps in science continue to exist, and a pair of recent studies highlights yet another set of differences between female and male researchers.

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One study suggests that the concept of “brilliance” in science might discourage some women from following certain career paths or education opportunities. Another found that women are more likely than men to offer “honorary authorships” to scientists who may not or do not deserve it—a courtesy that might obscure the magnitude of their own contributions. Continue reading →