Creating Graphical Abstracts to Improve the Process of Scientific Research

One program. 10 students. 9 different labs. 3 departments. 8 weeks.Lot of challenges for student researchers: Understand project, Communicate project, Collect data, Analyze data, Present results, Be coherent, Be interesting, Be trustworthy, Be brilliant. How do you get students who are new to campus and to each other invested quickly into a research project so that they can make meaningful progress during a short summer research stint? To attack this challenge with our cohort of students in the NSF-REU CASMM program (Chemistry and Applications of Smart Molecules & Materials), we had them create visual images of their research project at both the very beginning and the end of their stay. In this presentation, we will discuss how we used 3-minute mini-presentations and graphical abstracts to train students in how to think about science, communicate science, and help themselves understand their own projects through the process of image creation. (work done with Andrew Franks & Julia Roberts)