<p>Did you guys participate much in your weekly lab meetings? </p>
<p>I've been in the lab for almost a year now... and I still rarely participate, can't think of anything to say really. Any tips? thanks</p>
<p>Unless you're doing some stand-out research or have been putting a lot of hours into lab, I don't think you're expected to do much. I mean, if you're working 10 hours a week, you'll get done in a month what most grad students should do in less than a week. It's more of the experience of attending a group meeting and understanding what goes on that matters most.</p>
<p>Not always though. It really depends on the professor and the size of the groups.</p>
<p>For example, I didn't do much of anything when one of my professors had over 20 graduate students and scientist working under him. However, I am doing much more research with another professor who has ~10 graduate students. Although, I would have to agree that my work is not a graduate-level research.</p>
<p>Sometimes there are extra jobs that professor might have you do if you are willing to spend more time. For example writing reports or doing library work. You learn alot by reading hundreds of publications and writing 200 page reports... literally.</p>
<p>To be honest, I didn't participate in lab meeting to a great degree until I joined my thesis lab -- I didn't participate much in lab meeting in my rotation labs my first year of grad school, even.</p>
<p>If you can think of questions, it's a good idea to ask them, because they're useful for helping you learn and for helping other members of the lab understand what it is you don't know. If you can't think of questions, don't worry too much about it, but try to hone your question-asking skills -- it's really important as a scientist to be able to pinpoint what it is you don't understand and to ask the right questions to resolve the issue in your mind.</p>
<p>I spent 10 weeks in a lab where we had lab meetings once a week. I don't think I ever asked any questions, but I did have to present my research at the one of the lab meetings at the end of the 10 weeks.</p>
<p>Mine met once or twice a month because we're too busy doing the field surveys. Usually communication is through emails. Since we have different class schedules with some people who can't make it to any meeting due to part time jobs too.</p>
<p>But when we get together we talked about the overall process, and other suggestions of making the 1000 packet of surveys done faster with only about 8 of us. We talk about the overall data entry etc. What population we have already and what we need etc. Basically talking about the things you're doing in the lab. I think there's a lot to talk about as a group. You can't really single out yourself if you're helping out with field surveys because everyone has something to do......</p>