With the undergraduate researchers that I've been working with, I'm starting to run into issues of supervision. Not that they aren't doing their work or that they're doing it completely wrong, but I suspect that they are cutting corners in key ways because I'm seeing things fail down the line. And this is coming at a time where I'm out of lab for the weekend.
Since it was crunch time, I did a few things. I sent a scary email telling them to buckle down, and asked that they go over protocols together. I also tried out a new thing: they're uploading pictures to a google drive folder that I can look at on my own time. There's a few benefits to this, including that I won't get texts constantly throughout the day and I can look over the pictures on my own time. Plus I get to feel like I get a complete update on what's going on.
I feel a little weird about this, to be completely honest. I don't what my students to think that I don't trust them, or that I'm giving them a ton of busy work. But I think for a weekend its manageable and it seems useful. At time of writing we are a day in, but I'm pretty pleased with the results.
We will certainly see, I want to ask the students what they thought of this system once I get back. But I do think it was good to instill a sense of the seriousness of this. Hopefully this means things start going right so we can end the summer on a high note.
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