Increasing numbers of Rice undergraduates are seeking biological and biomedical research opportunities and anecdotal evidence suggests that many TMC faculty members are interested in hosting undergraduates. We would like to facilitate the interaction between research-interested undergraduates and prospective research hosts. The following is to provide information for those interested in recruiting undergraduate researchers or technicians.
Expectations of Research Advisors
Providing Compensation
The first decisions you will have to make is whether you want to actively mentor a student. If you are looking for someone who can perform part-time, technician-like work (e.g. washing glassware, database maintenance, etc.) and nothing more, we suggest offering a paid position rather than course credit. We are happy to facilitate this by posting an advertisement on our email lists; students are often looking for jobs and working in a lab can be a profitable and rewarding endeavor. However, for our “for-credit” students, we require that
- Their project must fall under the broad description of either biology (for BIOS 310) or neuroscience (for NEUR 310).
- The students’ research must be performed in laboratory setting (with the exception of some computational/bioinformatics research); they will not receive undergraduate research credit for physician shadowing or other clinical or hospital activities.
- Their work must be somewhat independent (more so as they gain more experience)
- They must be able to meet their PIs at least weekly
- They must have a bench mentor (i.e., someone who can work with them on a day to day basis). See below for details.
Your active mentorship will give students invaluable scientific professional development and in return we anticipate that they will become productive members of your lab. You are welcome to provide financial compensation to “for-credit” students as well, but the requirements for their pay must not keep them from completing the required coursework. This dual compensation (i.e., pay and course credit) is more common in the summer because students may not be able to afford summer housing and food without a stipend. However, this is something that needs to be negotiated by you and your student.
Providing a Bench Mentor
To have a productive experience, students need a “Bench Mentor”; this is someone in the lab who is available to advise them daily. This person might be the professor, if they spend a lot of time in the lab, or a patient graduate student, post doc, or other experienced individual who is interested in educating undergraduate researchers. If the student is mentored by someone other than the professor, the student also should be able to meet with the professor at least once a week to talk about their progress and plans. In their first semester, most undergraduates require more time of their professor and bench mentor than they give back. In subsequent semesters, however, they often become more independent and some function at the level of part-time graduate students.
Grading and Feedback
We ask that you keep notes and track your student’s progress as a researcher. We have provided a weekly report system that should aid in this (details found here). At the end of the semester, Research Advisors are required to fill out a grading form provided by the course instructor via email. The grades should be turned in by the last day of exams; this date will be provided along with the grading form but can also be found here. This form should take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to fill out. Please take the time to provide the qualitative feedback that these forms ask for – it provides us with a great deal of insight on how to improve our program.
Grades are not wholly determined by your feedback; course assignments carry weight that can impact a student’s final grade
Finally, given the general quality of our student body, we expect our students to be effective researchers. If, in your judgement, a student is performing at “C”-level or below, we ask that you inform the course instructor prior to the halfway point in the semester. We will attempt to intervene ans set the student back on the right course.
Health and Safety Forms and Training
It is important that your for-credit research students can start their research semester safely and on time. To ensure that your students have the requisite immunizations, permissions, training, etc., your institution will likely require the completion of multiple forms and training sessions. As a research advisor, it is your responsibility to work with your administration and identify the requisite forms and training and ensure that they are completed in a timely manner. If you have little experience hosting undergraduate researchers, you can contact us; we may be able to give you general information and point you to the relevant people or processes at your institution.
Expectations of Students
Course Assignments
Students are expected to complete 3 different assignments throughout the semester
- Research Proposal: This is a 1 page document (abstract, aims, and references) due at the end of the second week of the semester. It is a summary of the planned project and how the research will be conducted. We ask them to consult you to discuss their project in advance of writing their proposal.
- Weekly Reports: Students will fill out an online form every Saturday that summarizes their activity from the past week. This form, when submitted, will generate a weekly report email sent to you, the bench mentor, the student, and the course instructor.
- Final Project: Students will submit a paper (in the style of a peer-reviewed article) or poster presentation (presented at our spring or summer poster symposia) based on their semester’s research. Alternative final projects (submitted papers, conference presentations, etc.) are acceptable, but must be negotiated with the Rice course instructor on a case by case basis early in the semester.
Additional information can be found here.
Research hours
Students must spend at least 3 hours researching per week for each credit they receive; they can take the course for 1 to 4 credits (i.e., 3-12 hours/week). We recommend that students start by taking the course for 3 credits (9 hr/week). It is hard to accomplish anything in lab with fewer than 9 hours/week and you can refuse to host students if they cannot participate for what you believe is an appropriate number of hours. Students researching in an off-campus lab are required to sign up for at least 3 credit hours. Student research hours can also include reading and writing hours as they learn to contextualize and communicate their research.
Given that semesters are approximately 14 work weeks long, you can expect between 42 and 168 hours of work per semester. We ask that you not ask for significantly more hours than is required for the course, and to consider literature review part of these hours. Full-time students are often juggling four or five classes in addition to undergraduate research, and we want them to have enough time for their studies.
There is no limit on the number of semesters that BIOS 310 or NEUR 310 can be repeated for credit, although some students choose to volunteer in labs without taking credit. Sometimes students are just being conservative about their time and wish to get acclimated to the lab before enrolling in a research course. However, sometimes students with already full course schedules elect to volunteer to avoid the 18 credit-hour limit imposed by Rice University. If a student asks to volunteer without credit, you may want to check with them to ensure that they aren’t trying to do too much and are really going to have the mental and physical space for research.
Holidays and Time off
Undergraduate research students are entitled to all Rice University vacations and holidays, but we ask that they prepare for their leave by informing their lab and not leaving unfinished work for others to juggle. Failure to do this may be reflected in their grade.
The Matching Process
Most of the time, students will approach you to be their Research Advisor. This typically happens the semester prior to beginning their research (early April is registration for fall, November is registration for spring) but they may continue their search up until a few weeks before the semester begins. Students search for summer opportunities throughout the spring semester.
Advertising Your Lab
Opportunities for undergraduates can be posted year round for various modes of compensation. If you are interested in recruiting Rice undergraduates, you can use this information and template to craft an ad. For bioscience-related subjects, send your ad to Dr. Dereth Phillips or Dr. Joey Olmos and for neuroscience-related subjects send to Dr. Jon Flynn. We will post your ad to our list and leave it up for a predetermined time or until you notify us that your positions are filled.
The template linked above will prompt you to share the following:
- Number and type of openings, weekly hours required
- Potential projects for students
- Compensation (volunteer*, course credit, and/or pay)
- Required experience (if any)
- Your lab’s focus
- Techniques that your lab uses
- Lab location, travel distance (from Rice), and transportation suggestions (if not walking distance)
- Lab environment/personnel
- Student research philosophy
- Contact information
* If you are seeking volunteers, please make sure that your institution will allow undergraduates to work without pay. Rice international students must consult with the Rice Office of International Students and Scholars prior to any off-campus research participation (paid or otherwise) to ensure compliance with their student visas.
Further Questions
Please feel free to contact Dr. Phillips (for bioscience related subjects) or Dr. Flynn (for neuroscience related subjects) if you have any questions or would like to post an opening for an undergraduate researcher in your lab.