Team Research at the Biology–Mathematics Interface: Project Management Perspectives
Document Type
Article
Department
Biology (CMC), Mathematics (CMC), Mathematics (HMC), Applied Life Sciences (KGI), Biology (Pitzer), Mathematics (Pomona), Biology (Scripps), Neuroscience (Scripps), WM Keck Science, WM Keck Science (CMC), WM Keck Science (Pitzer), WM Keck Science (Scripps)
Publication Date
2010
Keywords
interdisciplinary research, team performance, undergraduate students, project management, mathematics, biology
Abstract
The success of interdisciplinary research teams depends largely upon skills related to team performance. We evaluated student and team performance for undergraduate biology and mathematics students who participated in summer research projects conducted in off-campus laboratories. The student teams were composed of a student with a mathematics background and an experimentally oriented biology student. The team mentors typically ranked the students' performance very good to excellent over a range of attributes that included creativity and ability to conduct independent research. However, the research teams experienced problems meeting prespecified deadlines due to poor time and project management skills. Because time and project management skills can be readily taught and moreover typically reflect good research practices, simple modifications should be made to undergraduate curricula so that the promise of initiatives, such as MATH-BIO 2010, can be implemented.
Rights Information
Copyright © 2010 by the American Society for Cell Biology
Terms of Use & License Information
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
DOI
10.1187/cbe.10-03-0021
Recommended Citation
John G. Milton, Ami E. Radunskaya, Arthur H. Lee, Lisette G. de Pillis, and Diana F. Bartlett Team Research at the Biology–Mathematics Interface: Project Management Perspectives CBE Life Sci Educ 2010 9:316-322; doi:10.1187/cbe.10-03-0021
