I use a modular approach to mentoring research projects that provides consistent opportunities for achievement for mentees. The module structure helps mentees achieve consecutive near-future goals which fosters self-confidence and facilitates retainment of at-risk individuals. Each module is suited to year-long investments by individual students.

 

Mentee Modules:

A) Preregister research ideas (using museum and/or field data). Pre-study peer review helps mentees visualize how they will successfully complete their project, promotes transparent and open science, and is empowering for mentees to see themselves as part of a bigger academic and scientific community. This module typically takes 2-3 months to write and is done prior to any data collection. The peer-review process, data collection and post-study write up occupy the remaining 9-10 months of proposed yearlong projects.

 

B) Conduct a literature review and build an alpha model. This process identifies current gaps in knowledge and helps mentees master the subject material. Building an alpha model (a term used to describe a picture of how we think a system works) is one way for mentees to built their internal narrative of how their research system works and to think about what part of the system would be the most useful to study to fill knowledge gaps.

 

C) Integrate the results of research from "A" into the model framework from "B". While completing all three modules is suitable for graduate student mentees, these modules can be completed as stand alone projects by any mentees.