Some of you may remember, last semester I was searching for an undergraduate volunteer to help me out with some wet lab work. After a few interviews and a lot of emails, I've recruited two pretty cool young ladies - one senior, one freshman - to begin instructing this semester :D I am incredibly excited to work with them, and I thought I'd dedicate today's blog post to describing how I'll be training them in our wet lab over the course of Penn State's Spring 2018 semester. Please share your training techniques with me, especially if you notice I'm missing any essential components haha.
We're beginning with one of the most important skillsets one can develop in a modern DNA wet lab: how to properly use a micropipette. I've compiled some pipetting tips and instruction in a document, as well as two accuracy exercises [see above]. My undergrads worked through the exercises under my supervision yesterday, and I've encouraged them to practice the exercises whenever they've got some free time and feel like zen-ing out with a pipette in hand.
I've also adapted a stoichiometry training packet from Christina Bergey's former lab at NYU into a question set that should hopefully help them learn how to make buffers and things like that [see below]. Each of the questions focuses on reagents we commonly use in our lab space - hopefully everything will feel familiar to them after they've gone through this question set, even if they've never used a compound before.
If you'd like to adapt this initial training packet for your lab, please feel free to download either a .doc or PDF version by clicking the images throughout this post.
And please let me know if there's anything I should add! So far it's been well-received by my undergraduate research volunteers :)
And please let me know if there's anything I should add! So far it's been well-received by my undergraduate research volunteers :)
I've also put a fair amount of effort into figuring out how I'll train my undergrads to use kits and protocols in our lab space. I've been using this rather nifty OMEGA bio-tek E.Z.N.A. Tissue DNA Kit for all of my sampling lately, but it's always bothered me that the manual was 35 pages long and that I only really needed one of the protocols from it. Sure, all kits come with a quick guide, but it doesn't tell you useful things like when to preheat something for a later step or how many sets of labeled tubes you'll go through.
So I took all of the information I needed (kit contents, protocol, useful tips, Perry Lab-specific modifications) and made myself a one-page-long checklist [see left, PDF here]. This checklist lives in one of these clear sheet protectors so I can check the boxes with a dry-erase marker each time I run through an extraction - trying to live a little greener :) This particular checklist has already proved itself useful while training undergrads in the wet lab. I ran through this protocol with them yesterday, and they could easily follow along on their own copies and add extra notes and things that they didn't want to forget later. They'll get to try it out themselves tomorrow. |
Hopefully the lack of flipping pages in protocols will keep them from feeling flustered while they are still learning how to maneuver within our wet lab space [doc and PDF versions of my pared-down version below]. Working in a new space for the first time always makes you feel like a klutz - you haven't yet developed the muscle memory to grab a tip box without looking for it or retrieve a weigh boat from the 4th drawer down on the left. As such, minimizing fluster where I can is a rather high priority for me. Making things easier for yourself almost always makes things easier for everyone else too.
I'm compiling all of the above materials and more in our shared Google Drive folder [see below]. I figured this would be the easiest way to 1) distribute necessary files and 2) share documents we could all edit together. I'll teach my undergraduate volunteers to keep a digital lab notebook in this folder, and we can all get ahead on some routine lab work by labeling a bunch of tubes before we need them for a protocol.
This is also where I keep our Potential Training Schedule [first two pages below]. This doc contains a bit more than our schedule: I've included some ideas for professional development that they can participate in while they work with our lab, as well as a running list of things we've gone over together. I figure this list will be especially useful to them if they'd like to apply to grad/med school one day in the future. I add colored-text notes and tips once I've trained them on a topic [see Week of January 15 for example], including links to relevant YouTube videos in case they need a refresher here and there.
So now I've gone through how I'll be running the show, please let me know what you think! I'd love to hear your thoughts, advice, constructive criticism, whatever you'd like to offer :) I'll post a Part 2 later in the semester with feedback from my undergrads. In the meantime, wish the three of us luck and patience haha. Cheers!