Training and management strategies for undergraduate marine science research

A number of primarily undergraduate colleges and universities conduct excellent marine science research. These undergraduate laboratories are structured and function differently than typical research focused universities; the latter of which train and rely on PhD students for field-work, experimental setup and execution, and proposal and paper writing. The purpose of this study is to recognize and learn from successful strategies of undergraduate marine science laboratories for training students and producing quality research. Results of a survey sent to undergraduate principal investigators regarding the structure of marine science research laboratories and associated mentoring strategies will be presented. In particular, there will be a focus on 1) laboratory management, 2) execution of field work, and 3) publication preparation and writing. Additionally, results will be compared with non-marine science undergraduate research laboratories that are productive in research. This work will help identify challenges and solutions to problems that are unique to undergraduate driven field-based marine science.