A few days ago, I got an email asking me, “what has it been like getting started doing research with undergraduate students at your institution?”.
Sorry let me introduce myself first. Hi, my name is Nikita Burrows, and I am a first-gen PI at a PUI with no post-doc. Finding balance and transitioning into this role was challenging, and it took a while, but I finally found my balance. So here are my first 7 tips for being a PI at a PUI with only undergraduate students.
The turnaround is faster with undergrads vs. graduate students. I can’t stress this enough. Generally, you only have them for one to two years. Three years if you are lucky, and they started early doing research. I found that you have to set a clear boundary of expectations for them. In order for them to do research with you, they have to commit to at least three full semesters of research with you. I found that setting that expectation sorts out those doing it to fulfill a requirement or have it on their CV vs. those who genuinely want the research experience. It might be tempting to have a high quantity of students over quality (and trust me, I’ve been there), but I promise you that it is worth it.
Regarding the number of undergraduate students, I found that I can only work well with 2 to 4 students in any semester. Anything over four students is too much for me. Of course, this is subjective to you, but I think two students is a good start. You do not have a post-doc to rely on to train students. Instead, you will have to do all training in addition to teaching and service. Imagine training 6 students every semester!
For projects, having one solid focus for all my research students to work on was the best thing for me. Because you will be teaching and doing service activities, I think starting with one solid focus is the best start for you as well. Now when I say one focus, you can have multiple projects in that focus. For example, my work focused on the undergraduate laboratory, but I had various projects inside it. But you don’t want to start doing lab studies, mindset studies, and concept inventory while also looking at digital badges. It’s too much to keep up with. As you evolve, those things will come, but it will be too much to give each research student one separate focus. This separate focus works for graduate students but not for research with undergraduates at a PUI
Because undergrads are generally new to research and probably never encountered any educational research skills, I had to find a research skill I could teach in one semester or less. I decided to go with teaching them interview skills because I was very familiar with it, and after a few practice runs, I could move students straight into data collection. It is tempting to have undergrads go through the literature review process and how to develop research questions, etc. But I have found that it requires a lot of one-on-one time, which I didn’t have a ton of because of the new courses, service work, and writing.
Getting your undergrad access to Grammarly will be a time-saver for you regarding the student-contributed writing portions of the manuscript. It will allow them to check how bad their writing is before you have to say anything at all. So when you meet with them to discuss their report, it’s on the content, not the bad grammar.
Because the turnover for undergrads is more frequent than for graduate students, I found that making a training module for the research skill I want to teach them saves so much time.
On a similar note, all my research students have to go through CITI training. So I made a document with instructions on which CITI training modules to complete, how to get your results and how to send them to me after they are complete. So basically, if you can make a resource document to which you can send your undergrad students, then definitely do it.
That’s it for my first seven tips for being PI at a PUI. Of course, these are just my thoughts, but I found these to work well for me. Please add your own tips down below because I’m always looking for new ways to be a better PI at a PUI.