Week 1 (Introduction)
During the first week, students are introduced to RA work policies and policies regarding lab usage. They are also introduced to the Research Profile Form which was uniquely designed for our undergraduate scholars.
The Research Profile Form is a tool to guide our undergraduate scholars as they encounter various projects of the investigators who use the lab and to help them engage with those researchers in the lab setting. Filling out the form helps students apply what they learn (see Experimental Design, Week 4) and enables them to solidify their understanding of the research.
The form enables the students' and the lab to assess and document the students' learning process.
Undergraduate RA Policies
Harvard Decision Science Laboratory
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Professional Obligations and Expectations
Your work as an Research Assistant in the Decision Science Laboratory is a professional commitment. We regard you as colleagues in our work and depend on your full engagement with your work here in providing a first-class research facility to investigators from across the University. Accordingly, our reputation as a center of excellence in behavioral research depends on every member of the Lab team—and you are now a member of that team.
Your colleagues on the staff of the lab will work to make certain your experience of working here is a rewarding and enriching experience. We expect the following of you in return:
- Once you have identified the hours during the week you are able to work, and the Lab Manager has created the weekly work rotation schedule, you will adhere to the hours you have given to us unless a significant obstacle arises in the rests of your schedule. A midterm, section paper, problem set, or social obligation are generally not regarded as “significant obstacles.”
- Arrive on time for the hours you have been assigned. “On time” means you have arrived and situated yourself for work at the beginning of the time you’ve agreed to be here.
- Every day you should monitor the lab area assigned to you by the Lab Manager. This should be the first thing you check onbeforeturning to whatever work you’ve been assigned.
- If you have questions regarding the work you’ve been assigned, ask the supervisor of the work directly. The supervisor will not necessarily be the Lab Manager or the Postdoctoral Fellow.
- If you feel you are being asked to do work that is inappropriate, or that the assignments you are receiving are unclear, please inform the lab manager, the Executive Director, or the postdoctoral fellow.
- If a need arises requiring you to change your schedule, first you should attempt to find someone among your colleagues to switch with you in order to make certain the time will be covered. Then you should notify the lab manager about the change in schedule. It is not the Lab Manager’s responsibility to provide these arrangements.