Mentoring Students
Undergraduate Research
My favorite part of teaching and researching at a small liberal arts college involves my interactions with students.
My webpage also provides a brief philosophy of mentoring undergraduates in research.I highly value the time that students choose to dedicate to working in the lab and I try to create a real lab group through monthly(ish) lab meetings and other activities. I often pair "new" students with those that have been in the lab for awhile. Students can work in the lab during the 1st year as a technician and eventually take credit hours after finishing the methods sequence.
Often, with enough time and dedication, the students also get something out of their contributions, be it 1) experience presenting research; 2) guidance in the writing of small grants; 3) instruction in peer review; and/or 4) authorship on a peer reviewed publication. The biggest challenge for students involves learning how to ask a question in the field of ecology. The poster below by James McDonough and Colin Kyle illustrates what the process entails:
List of Research Students
List of Student Presentations
List of Student Grant Efforts and Awards
PDF of Research Process
