Involving undergraduates in genomics research to narrow the education-research gap

University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.3149v1
Subject Areas
Bioinformatics, Genomics, Science and Medical Education
Keywords
undergraduates, education-research gap, genomic data, lab productivity, pedagogically flexible, education, undergraduate research experience, genomic research
Copyright
© 2017 Mangul et al.
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Mangul S, Martin L, Eskin E. 2017. Involving undergraduates in genomics research to narrow the education-research gap. PeerJ Preprints 5:e3149v1

Abstract

While the benefits of undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are recognized for undergraduates, the advantages of UREs for graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and faculty are not clearly outlined. The analysis of genomic data is particularly well-suited for successful involvement of undergraduates. We offer a framework for engaging undergraduates in genomics research while simultaneously improving lab productivity. The proposed strategy can be easily reproduced at other institutions, is pedagogically flexible, and is scalable from smaller to larger laboratory sizes. We hope that genomics researchers will involve undergraduates in more computational tasks that benefit both students and senior laboratory members.

Author Comment

This is a preprint submission to PeerJ Preprints.

Supplemental Information

The Education-Research Gap in Universities

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.3149v1/supp-1

Benefits of UREs to Research Lab and Undergraduates

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.3149v1/supp-2