Planning Your Scientific Journey : Discussion Prompts

Module	Question
Module 0:
Module 1:
	Introduce yourself. If you haven’t already done so, please introduce yourself briefly on the course discussion forum by giving your name, the field/topic you are researching or hope to research, and one fun fact about yourself.
	Discuss a process to develop a research project. Dr. DePace described a 3-month process for formulating a research project. What has been or what will be your process for identifying a research project?
	Discuss papers for your topic of interest. Ask the forum community if there are any papers they recommend you read on your topic of interest. Be as specific as you can in explaining the topic so others are able to provide the most accurate and helpful recommendations. In addition, please browse the forums yourself and add any papers you recommend others should read.
Module 2:
	Discuss developing a scientific question. If you’ve never formulated a scientific question on your own before, what do you imagine will be the hardest part about it? If you have, what was the hardest part for you?
Module 3:
	Discuss other questions to consider. What other questions might you consider when designing experiments for your question or field of interest?
	Discuss evaluating a scientific question. Which of the assessment questions was most informative in evaluating your research project idea? Or, are there other questions or criteria we didn’t include in this course that you will also consider?
Module 4:
	Discuss the difference between undergraduate and advanced training. What has been the biggest difference for you between undergraduate and graduate or postdoctoral training? What do you wish you had known, or been trained in, when you became a grad student or postdoc?
	Discuss improving skills. Share with the community some of the skills that you are looking to improve and why? What ways are you thinking of developing these skills?
Module 5:
	Discuss your updated goal, made SMART. In the previous week you wrote out at least 3-5 short-term research goals for yourself. If you don’t remember them, you can go back here (Q25) to remind yourself. Choose one of those goals and update it following the SMART (specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, and time bound) principle. Then take this updated goal and post it on the forum to get feedback on your SMART goal. While you are on the forum, make sure to comment on at least two other posted SMART goals. How could those goals be made more SMART?
	Discuss your accountability plan. List at least one strategy for how you might hold yourself accountable to one of your SMART goals from Q29, Q30, Q31 and Q32. If you’re having trouble coming up with something, how have you held yourself accountable to previous goals that you’ve had? Did it work?
Module 6: