Mentoring Leads to 1st-Authored Student Publication and much more!

Since joining NSU in 2018, Arthur Sikora, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor in Chemistry & Physics) has mentored over 30 undergraduate students in independent research resulting in 19 student research presentations across 9 external scientific meetings and 3 NSU research events. Last month, the first peer-reviewed paper that featured a NSU undergraduate researcher, Ambika Kapil from Dr. Sikora’s lab as the first author was accepted for publication in the Florida Distance Learning Association Journal, titled “Analysis of Attitudinal Student Learning Benefits from a Course-based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) Adapted for Online Format”. Ambika was joined by undergraduate students Luis C. Gonzalez Isoba and Niraj Pathak as secondary authors and the project was a collaboration between two NSU faculty members: Dr. Sikora and Dantanu De, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor in Biological Science).

As described in our October 2022 DoR Newsletter, Dr. Sikora has been working on developing CURE courses on the NSU campus. Recently, Dr. Sikora, students from his Honors CURE course, and the Biochemistry Authentic Scientific Inquiry Laboratory (BASIL) CURE course students presented at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Discover BMB conference in Seattle from March 25-28.  We caught up with Dr. Sikora to talk about his undergraduate students’ publication and the importance of mentoring.

 

Have you had memorable mentors in the past/present?

Yes, a few come to mind from different stages in my journey. During my undergraduate education in physical chemistry, I had a mentor who was supportive of my passion for teaching. She helped me dig deeper into student learning and encouraged me to help develop teaching materials. She was instrumental in my efforts to get into graduate school.

In graduate school, I had my dissertation mentor who helped with all practical science and research training. I also had a great community mentor whose specialty was in economics. This mentor helped more with advice on balancing graduate school life, preparing for the job market and life after graduating.

Lastly, the department chair for my first faculty position helped me transition from the student side of higher education to the faculty side. He was very helpful and provided support but also allowed me to learn through experience, including allowing me to fail, analyze, and resolve the issue.

 

Why do you think mentoring is important in research?

Mentoring is very important in research because you are expected to do a lot of things that do not have a rule book or guidelines. This includes but is not limited to experimental design, implementation, data analysis, interacting with other scientists, supporting your research, etc.  Having a mentor to help navigate and reassure you during those processes is invaluable. The experience that can be handed down to the next scientist can help them handle stress, cope with imposter syndrome, clear up confusions, connect and network with other researchers, develop confidence that they are going in the right direction, and can help keep them on track.

 

Briefly tell us about your undergraduate student’s publication:

We looked at measuring student learning through a pre/post attitudinal self-reported survey, gauging understanding, knowledge, experience, and confidence in biochemistry related material. The survey utilized a Likert scale for questioning to determine the gains/losses from before biochemistry class exposure (pre-test) to after completing the biochemistry class (post-test). The goal was to understand what students are effectively learning and what they are not learning to determine areas to improve course instruction and curriculum. Assessment design and the understanding of student learning are not a high researched area but are very important for effective instruction to improve the learning experience.

 

What roles did the students play in producing this publication?

The biochemical concepts involved in our survey content can be complicated and prior knowledge was needed, so all three students were required to complete the biochemistry course first. The students really took the initiative when it came to data analysis of learning gains, organizing/reporting results, and statistical analysis for significance. I do not have an extensive background in data and statistical analysis, so it was great to have the students become the teacher and help the whole lab understand the appropriateness of certain analysis techniques. The analysis methods that were used will be applicable in the students’ future careers in medicine and healthcare research. Additionally, the students participated in figure design, writing, editing, and overall manuscript organization.

 

As the students worked on the publication, what was your role as a mentor?

I completed all the regulator work and paperwork prior to the study beginning while leaning on collaborations (Dr. De) to complete the study. Dr. De brought new ideas and direction to the project which contributed heavily to our successes. I know that my success is in large part due to the efforts of my collaborators both within and outside NSU. During weekly meetings, I would oversee the main direction, focus points of content, and maintain that we meet our deadlines. I worked closely with the students to show them how to compile data and work as a group to analyze, but I relied heavily on their abilities to work independently on these tasks. Dr. De helped me get organized and inspire the students as I also served as motivator for the group while we formatted and edited many drafts through the arduous process of submitting for publication.

 

Do you see your mentoring style rubbing off on your mentees?

Yes, this is a big part of the way my lab works. In graduate school, my PI would leave us alone for extended periods of time, then reappear abruptly to ask for results, and months later without any further discussion the PI would publish a paper with our results. I did not like this model and decided to promote more collaboration and involvement by the students in my lab. Research exposure is important for development, and I want the students to get as much experience through all of the research-related processes, whether easy or hard.

With a large teaching load and other responsibilities taking me away from 100% involvement in conducting research, it is important to train the students to drive the research. I hold weekly meetings to support the students, but it was most interesting to see that the students would hold student-only group meetings outside of our lab meetings. The upper-level students have started to peer mentor those students with less experience in the laboratory. This has led to a high level of understanding within the upper level students because they need to have great working knowledge to be able to teach other students. Additionally, it is very valuable to have all the collective minds in the lab working together to help think critically and innovatively to address issues and come up with ideas/solutions.

A perfect example is of our 1^st cohort of CURE students. They returned to the CURE course one year later to talk to the new class about peer mentorship and how it helped them when they were enrolled in the course. The 1^st cohort students also presented a poster on peer mentorship at the Discover BMB conference in late March.

 

Can mentoring help make research experiences more inclusive and relatable for underrepresented students?

We have tried to diversify STEM for decades and we are still not seeing a diverse STEM workforce. Mentoring helps provide representation and foster belonging. Representation can allow underrepresented students to see themselves in STEM fields because they can picture themselves in the positions.

Students see and hear professors very well; therefore, as a professor we must be mindful of disparities, make sure to be inclusive, and avoid any conscious and subconscious biases that we may have. It is also important to highlight discoveries by minority scientists and researchers. Operating within this mindset will be recognized by students and will help foster the environment for students to feel welcome, comfortable, and represented. Through mentoring, we can highlight the before mentioned and make a direct impact helping underrepresented students see themselves as future doctors, engineers, etc.

Additionally, our CURE courses are a great way to bring research opportunities to students who might have a lot of extenuating responsibilities (family, other jobs, etc.) and do not have the time to devote to formal independent research projects with a faculty mentor.

Do you know of any resources that could help faculty become better mentors?

Many of the professional societies that faculty are members of offer mentoring resources and opportunities. For example, through my membership in the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), I participate in a society-sponsored mentoring program where I have been matched with a graduate student mentee from Puerto Rico. We have met at various conferences and I offer ongoing research and professional advice. ASBMB does a good job of summarizing “How Mentoring Moments Are Made” during their annual meetings.

The National Research Mentor Network (NRMN) is another valuable mentoring resource for faculty and students.

 

Any additional advice for mentors and mentees?

Advice to mentors: Be mindful of how you interact with students and researchers. Think about the benefits from the student’s perspective as well. Keep in mind their struggles, availability, professional development (CV, future academic/career goals), and share your experiences through the research-related processes that fall outside of the direct research that they are conducting.

Advice to mentees: Talk to your professors and mentors. We are approachable and will make the time to chat. We are faculty because we want to interact with students and talk about ideas and interests. We are people and we want to help you.

 

Additional mentoring resources:

NSU Grant Writing Mentoring Program, https://www.nova.edu/dor/research-resources/grant-writing-mentoring-program.html

Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER), https://cimerproject.org/

Science Careers Individual Development Plan (myIDP), https://myidp.sciencecareers.org/