With the start of the academic year, I want to repost my expert learning article. Soon, graduate students will start their first lab rotations. A lucky few will walk in, and things will work seemingly magically on day one. For most, this marks the start of a sometimes arduous journey of learning to be an expert experimentalist. As a PI, have you ever wondered how to make this journey less arduous? 1/🧵
https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E22-11-0517
#Mentoring #AcademicLife #LabLife #GraduateSchool #GradSchool #PhD
@MCDuncanLab loved this article—shared it with my lab mates! What an awesome framework for intentional skill development.
I’ve been thinking about something complementary to this framework: focusing on the physical aspects of our job. I’m still amazed at how gracefully my first research mentor interrogated a solution by gently pipetting it against the wall of the tube as she held it up to the light. It took a long time before my own pipettes felt like extensions of my hands!
@askennard @MCDuncanLab I thought that was normal! 😳
@lzvolk @askennard @MCDuncanLab I've found that I have to explicitly teach students how to write on a small tube. Most arent aware of their hands and how to stabilize them for detailed work.
Absolutely! One thing I do now with everyone who joins my lab (even postdocs) is to do a how-to pipette session.
I think many of my early grad school failures were due to problems with pipetting.
I've started adding in, make sure to wear your glasses if you need them. Until I started needing reading glasses, I did not realize how much being able to see well is part of good pipetting. Now I realize that some ppl's struggles come from vision issues.
@MCDuncanLab @rspfau @lzvolk as a postdoc I would love a how-to-pipet session. You always learn something new from someone else’s hard-won experience!
@MCDuncanLab @askennard @rspfau Proper pipetting should be a part of a new lab member’s initiation. As well as proper sterile techniques when using a ‘clean’ hood.
I don’t care how good they think they are. Had a few grad/post-docs come to my labs claiming they were ‘experts’, and then wondering why their experiments fail or (most often) they find contamination.
@askennard @rspfau @lzvolk
Best advice. Read the pipettor manual they are actually amazing resources.
Eg:
'To attain maximum accuracy, set volume must be approached from a higher value. If the desired value is lower than the previous volume, adjust the value to 1/3 turn above the required setting..."
Also these two pages: