The value of working in a lab as an undergraduate:

Working on a research project as an undergraduate can be an extremely valuable experience – it can help you decide if a research based career is right for you and it can help you gain field, lab, and/or animal husbandry skills that may be valuable to you in the future. Most importantly,establishing an excellent working relationship with graduate students and faculty members can ensure they will be happy to write letters of recommendation for you in the future. A strong letter of recommendation can help you to stand out in a pool of job or graduate school applications. 

Requirements and Expectations:

Undergraduate research should be taken just as seriously as any other course that you take at Auburn University.  We accept volunteers but prefer that you sign up for research credit.  If you sign up for research credit, you will be assigned a grade at the end of the semester. Although your performance is not determined based on formal exams or term papers, you will be assigned a grade based on 1) the completion of any assigned readings and quality of any writing assignments, 2) your reliability –you show up to work on time, you complete the number of hours expected of you each week, you provide at least one week notice if you have conflict, and missed days are kept minimal and 3) the completion and quality of your laboratory notebook and Microsoft excel database, if appropriate. 

To gain 4980 credit,student are expected to work approximately 5 hours per week for 2 credits, 7hours per week for 3 credits, and 9 hours per week of 4 credits.  There will be several projects going on in the lab at once; some students may be working independently and others as a team.  At the beginning of the semester you will be provided with a tentative outline of the project(s) you will be working on during the semester.  This should help give you some direction but be prepared to adapt to new projects if projects finish early, instruments misbehave, or another project is given higher priority.  There is a lot or boring, tedious, and mundane work that has to be completed associated with every research project – everyone is expected to contribute to these tasks.  Many of the samples collected and analyzed in the lab are irreplaceable.  Therefore, you may be expected spend several weeks building field and laboratory skills before you are allowed to work with irreplaceable samples. 

Although gaining research experience can be extremely beneficial to your career development, it cannot act to replace poor or even mediocre performance in the classroom.  When working in the Hood laboratory, you will be expected to maintain a strong academic record.  Students with a GPA less than 3.0 will not be allowed to work in the Hood lab while taking classes.  If at any point during the semester you are having trouble with your courses, please discuss ways to scale back your research responsibilities with Dr Hood.