By Julie F. Charbonnier

My first year of graduate school is a hazy memory. I can still see myself in my roach-infested apartment, piles of articles on the floor, as I paced back and forth, sipping on my fifth cup of coffee and panicking about how little I knew about…just about everything. The research project I had proposed had been destroyed during a lab meeting, and my students despised my lecturing style. If this isn’t going to be on the quiz, why do we need to learn it? I couldn’t even get the software I needed to load on my computer. At the time, I was sure that I was failing miserably at graduate school, and I wasn’t exactly enjoying the graduate experience.

By Julie F. Charbonnier

When researching a new topic, you may one day come across a literature review. Or, perhaps you will need to write your own review, as part of a senior thesis project or as a chapter of your dissertation. Either way, you can use literature reviews as an important tool for understanding the research in an unfamiliar field and for developing your own writing skills.

What is a literature review? A literature review is a summary of the current, scientific literature on a particular topic or a specialized critique of an individual article. Literature reviews require you to find, collect, and organize past studies on a scientific topic or question. With this background material in hand, you will identify the emerging ideas in a very specific area, as well as important theories and questions that still need to be answered.

By Courtney Thomas

You spent weeks perfecting each word of your abstract and you finally get the email you have been waiting for:

“Your poster presentation has been accepted in the technical program for the upcoming meeting.”

From preparing data for your poster, to practicing your presentation, to attending the conference itself, there is a lot of hard work that goes into getting ready for any conference.

Here are some tips for preparing to present your first poster:

By Niharika Vattikonda

The abstract of a scientific paper serves two main functions: selection and indexing. Readers use the abstract to decide whether it is worthwhile to read the paper. Indexing databases search abstracts, not full texts, to find relevant results. Therefore, an abstract should both be easy to comprehend and contain all of the key words and phrases of the paper.

Most abstracts follow a strict format that includes the following sections: Background, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. Some journals may require additional sections, such as Objectives or Limitations. Always check with the professor, journal, or competition guidelines to make sure you have the required sections.

By Julie Wolf

Despite the U.S. News and World Report’s rankings, there is no one “best” college experience for everyone. A number of personal preferences are involved in choosing where to go to school, including location, cost, competitiveness, and interests. An important factor when it comes to choosing a school is the size of the institution. Will you go to the large, research-focused university? Or do you prefer a smaller, more undergraduate-focused liberal arts school? Either choice can contribute to a top-notch education, but it’s important to ensure you are making the most of your opportunities wherever you decide to attend.


Although there are a wide variety of university types, this two-part series will focus on the opposite ends of the spectrum mentioned above. Previously, we have discussed the benefits of a large, research-oriented university. This article will cover how to get the most from the opportunities offered by a small, liberal arts college. Nobel-prize laureate Thomas Cech has high praise for the research preparedness of liberal arts graduates, and we here at Scientista thought of a few ways to maximize your experience while in school:

By Chelsea Travers

I previously wrote a series on getting into medical school. But after only nine months of my new adventure, I was struggling to maintain the enthusiasm I’d felt when first accepted. This is how I dealt with my struggle.

By Martina Efeyini

Many of us have lived at one point in our lives in a small apartment. When you live in a small apartment finding a productive study space can be a challenge. But no matter how small your apartment is, these tips will help you turn it into a productive study space.

By Lipa Long

For teachers struggling to channel the complex concepts of calculus to their students, researchers at the University of British Columbia are heralding a new key component to the higher math learning process: interactivity.

In a recent study published in The International Journal on Mathematics Education, researchers found that  first-year calculus students taught in an environment focused on interactive engagement  were 10% more likely to reflect a higher conceptual understanding of the material and the increased ability to apply learned concepts toward new ideas. The study’s heightened engagement factor was achieved through a subject-focused “intervention” week, which employed active-learning pedagogies such as pre-class assignments, small-group discussions, and clicker quizzes designed to enhance student participation.

By Molly Gasperini 
  
The modern era of biology is shooting forward on the back of computational progress. Harnessing big data is a vital part of being a competitive and skillful modern scientist. However, traditional biology curriculum provides little computational training, and it can be incredibly easy to feel far behind peers with formal computer science training. As a molecular biologist, I questioned whether I could become an adept computational scientist without the formal training!

After tackling a computational project in my first rotation of graduate school, I learned that every pipette-wielding Scientista can learn computational skills, and keep up with the computer nerds.

Here are some important tips to get you started: