Thus, the summers are the only time I can really move projects forward. If I want to have enough done before tenure, I have no choice but to work in the summer.
This summer I had two undergraduates working for 12 weeks. My summer class started in the last half of their research time. Was I able to balance two undergraduate researchers with my teaching responsibilities? Short answer: sort of.
It wouldn't seem that much different than the academic year, right? After all, I have undergraduate researchers in the fall/spring and even MORE classes to teach. In reality, the demands from both category are much higher in the summer. My research group does much more involved protocols. I also am working with underclassmen, so they have to be taught everything. The summer permits the time needed to learn (and repeat) lab techniques, dive into the literature, and really learn how to keep a notebook. (oh, the notebooks.)
My class also requires a lot more out of me. Typically I have off days in between lecture days. In the summer, I give two to three hours of lecture every day. The students are, in general, weaker as well. A majority of them are repeating the class after failing or withdrawing. Many of them hold summer jobs to pay for the class. All are burned out after the first summer class. Far more pep talks are required.
The key to maintaining my sanity-- and ensuring that we ALL had a productive summer-- was keeping lots of lists. I have a dry erase board in my lab, so each morning before class, I would meet with my researchers in the lab and together we would all map out the day's goals. Then I would help them list the steps to accomplish the various tasks. Sometimes this would require gory detail. Other days, I let them figure it out on their own. (Note that I couldn't let them do this every time, due to a few restraints we had from grant deadlines or the nature of the research.)
While I was in class, my students worked in the lab. They would go to lunch before I got out of class, so that left me a few moments to myself-- no class or lab students. I would meet with my lab group after they returned from lab to go over what they got accomplished in the morning. By the time the meeting was done, it was time for me to return to my summer class for the laboratory portion. After that finished, I met with my undergrad researchers again.
Rinse, repeat.
Frequent communication was the most important thing for me to keep my research going. What do you do--with undergrads or grads-- to make sure that the research ball keeps rolling?
