This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
I just finished the first recruitment for a local, integrated research and education project with adolescent girls. It was a fantastic experience, but the process of getting there… let’s just say there were challenges. I’m going to share some of those in a mini-series over the next few weeks to make scientific research – particularly human subjects research – more transparent to students and layfolk. Here is the basic outline of the posts I plan to write, which may change depending on how much I decide I need to anonymize as I go:
Issues with school-based research
Issues communicating interdisciplinary research
The importance of mentors who give a crap
Building relationships and finding great people to work with
Mentoring students
Executing your research plan, and what to do when nothing goes according to plan
I’m also going to put discussion questions at the end of each post, for anyone who wants to use this as part of a professionalization or research methods course. This also might be instructive to journalists and any other folks who want to know what we do all day. If you have any questions ahead of time, or particular issues you want me to cover as I go, just comment here or contact me in the usual places (Twitter, email).
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Stay tuned!