<p>This should have posted earlier…</p>
<p>At the beginning of this research ‘experience’, I asked him if there was anything I should be reading. He explained to me that there wasn’t and that I would learn “as I go along”. I My observation, which is probably worthless, is that you can’t learn evolutionary and environmental biology “as you go along” in three weeks.</p>
<p>I don’t know much about primer sets, bacterial samples, PCR, etc. I came to this program so that I could at least gain an elementary knowledge of these things, and instead my research advisor has patently refused to be involved in any manner. There have been numerous occasions where he has not shown up for lab at all (a few times, keeping me waiting for 2+ hours, hoping he’d come by midday but not showing up at all) and I would be left there, having nothing to do.</p>
<p>All I’ve done this entire time is set up reagents, clean glassware, put some things in a PCR, and ran a few gels. I have the ‘methods’ part of my poster down- however, there’s no way, with the dearth of data and applicable knowledge I have, that I can produce any type of analysis or conclusions or background summary. Hence, the problem. The research advisor said he would write them for me, send them to me, and that I can ‘rewrite them in my own words’. Does this show that I have knowledge of the material? No. Does this represent my own work? No. It’s plagiarism, plain and simple, and I’m not getting my hands dirty because he’s incompetent and preoccupied with his toddlers, or because his other students would rather surf the web and look at pr0n on lab computers, or… ugh, just a myriad of other reasons.</p>
<p>This lab is entirely, just, wrong. </p>
<p>Let me state some of the examples that I’ve encountered over the duration of my research ‘experience’:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Some of the vials taken from the refrigerator were frozen. I asked the lab tech (I am working with both her and the research advisor) how to unfreeze them more quickly than setting them out for half an hour. Her reply was to put them in my bra. Seriously.</p></li>
<li><p>The lab tech told me to mix 0.3 grams of a solute into 30 mL of a solvent for a 1% mixture. I asked her about the density of the solute, because clearly it would need to have the same density as water (1g/mL) for this to work. She explained to me that “a gram is the same thing as a milliliter.” so I replied, “So, this has the density of water?” She looked at me, clueless. Then she reiterated, “A gram always weighs one milliliter, no matter what.” I explained to her that a gram is a measure of mass, and a milliliter is a measure of volume, and she still didn’t understand me. She’s 47 and a graduate of this fine institution (tier 3!) where I am conducting ‘research’.</p></li>
<li><p>I was placed in this lab when my first research advisor, upon meeting me in person, stated that I was probably “not a good fit” for the project because I didn’t have a vehicle (I FLEW here) or camping equipment (it was a field project). I was never, ever apprised of this, not at all, prior to coming here. In fact, my roommate, whom is doing the same project, also does not have camping equipment and a car. She is also a size four. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Not even a week before, he emailed me his 22 page grant proposal, as well as a few personal emails to ‘get to know me better’. When he saw me in person, he stated that I would “probably not like hiking too much” and should probably “find a different mentor” so that I wouldn’t have to “hike with our group”, read: I’m overweight and, although I do hike quite a lot and physically am in good shape for my size, he was discriminating against me.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>We have three groups of students in this program. I live next door to three girls in the third group. One of them cannot read. No, I don’t mean she can’t read the sixteen-syllabled words from organic chemistry and the such. I mean, she. cannot. read. “The white cat walked down the alley” is beyond her comprehension, and yet, she’s been paid to come here to do research. She’s never in the lab, never at the meetings, nothing. Their research advisor has a, hmmm, how do I state this, a ‘special relationship’ with them.</p></li>
<li><p>I constantly get told how this is “…not an Ivy League school” (i.e., my tier 3 comment above) and how the students here “…have to work to get their grades”. I never mentioned but once that I go to Penn. During the introductions, we were asked to state our name, majors, sending school, and what project we were to be completing. Since that time, all I have gotten is rudeness from the other students.</p></li>
<li><p>This university, without my consent, published a ton of my personal information online when they claimed that my personal information was to be used for “grant purposes only”. It took over a month to correct the error.</p></li>
<li><p>They bring food and drinks into the lab. I abstain from doing so. They were having a potluck in the lab, and I refused to participate (because you’re just not supposed to eat food around ethidium bromide). I come back an hour later to find all of my samples, which took over six hours to prepare, knocked on the floor, with the vials opened. Hmm…</p></li>
<li><p>We don’t have enough reagent to run our experiments, because our lab tech is too preoccupied with spending lab funds on $15 iTunes gift cards.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There are probably 43,187,193 other things that I could mention, but at this point I don’t think it’s necessary. </p>
<p>All I’m saying is that he wants me to “make it sound like my own work”, and to me, being that I don’t have an idea of the basis behind the work… it’s plagiarism, plain and simple. </p>
<p>Excuse me for my poor writing. I’m going to bed soon.</p>