At the Bench, Undergraduates Become Scientists
Gathered in an upper floor laboratory with a tank of snails, bags of bones, and blocks sprouting mushrooms, students in the Semester in Biological Discovery (SBD) clustered around microscopes for one of the course’s final labs. The MBL’s Semester in Biological Discovery (SBD) is a 12-week undergraduate program that provides an immersive research experience in discovery-driven biological sciences that gives students a unique, hands-on research-focused experience.
The Marine Biological Laboratory’s SBD program emphasizes hands-on intensive work in the lab over traditional classroom learning. Students conduct open-ended experiments throughout the course and split into teams to apply what they’ve learned to complete their research projects.
Yunhee Chae, a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying biomedical engineering chose to participate in SBD for the immersive laboratory experience. Chae says her favorite part has been “having so much autonomy over my research projects while having access to immense guidance from such a welcoming faculty,” and that “participating in the Semester in Biological Discovery has further inspired me to pursue a research career. I am coming out of the program with so much more than I came in with.”
Dhareen Jean-Michel, a sophomore at Bridgewater State University double majoring in biology and physics says his favorite thing about being at the MBL is the sense of community. Beyond networking, he says students “build on each other, on our skills,” learning from one another all the while.
The Marine Biological Laboratory is “a place where you can try different kinds of methods,” says Jean-Michel, “and not be afraid to talk about different kinds of controversial science and figure out what works, what doesn't work, and just stay open.” Feona Edwards, a first-generation pre-vet student from the University of Chicago, joined SBD to gain “more hands-on experience, instead of just learning about animals—to actually work with them.”
During the course, Edwards saw jellyfish in the wild for the first time and discovered the value of pursuing her own research project. “I can dive in as much as I want and not fear that I'm missing out on the actual class,” she explained “because I come to class, and the lecture pertains to what I'm actually doing.”