<p>Over the summer I talked to a prof at the local university about volunteering his lab since I have an interest in biochemistry. He said the opportunity would be available during the school year, so I went to the lab today to sign some forms. I'm really worried that he's just going to keep me there for nothing. He said he has 10 projects going on and he'll find something for me to "entertain myself with"... but that's not what I want to do. I actually want to be involved!</p>
<p>Have any of you guys volunteered in research labs? And is this what they made you do? Is it always like this or is it just this prof?</p>
<p>If the prof has 10 projects going on, I’m sure if you try mentioning that you want to ‘work towards doing your own project’ and say that you want to learn how to ‘apply what your learning towards real work’, he’ll be more open to it. You should be a careful about the way you word it though, because some profs are more flexible than others. Also, even if you don’t get to do a legit project right away, stick around for a bit and try talking to him about it after a few weeks when you’ve made friends with the people in your lab. If that is still to no avail, you can try emailing more profs and mention that you have lab experience-that makes getting in with a more easy going prof that can accomodate your request easier.</p>
<p>At least when I started, the PI I talked to was suggesting that I did lab clean-up stuff, but once I actually started he gave me a project to work on and made the lab technician teach me the protocols. Make it clear that you’ll want to use research for science competitions.</p>
I’ll let him know.</p>