Would you like to know what makes informal science experiences effective and how these experiences impact the people who have them?  Then visit the Society for Amateur Scientists' Virtual Conference on Informal Science Education.

Here is Forrest Mims's contribution to the conference. Please visit the Virtual Conference to enjoy and learn from the other outstanding contributions.

Mentoring Student Scientists:  Four Case Studies

Forrest M. Mims III

The mentoring of students who do successful science projects can take several forms. Mentoring can be indirect, as when the curiosity of a student is aroused by a web site or science publication. Or mentoring can involve personal conversations and e-mails in which the mentor provides project suggestions and technical advice. The latter form of mentoring can be quite basic, as when the mentor merely suggests project ideas and answers occasional questions. Or the mentoring can be far more sophisticated, as when the mentor actively supervises the student and provides laboratory space at a university or government facility equipped with sophisticated and expensive instrumentation. This paper presents four case studies of the basic category of direct mentoring. For in my experience, students who receive basic mentoring and are largely left to their own resources gain more from the experience than those who are placed in a supervised lab. The case studies given here demonstrate that mentoring is not always a one-way exchange. For mentors may learn as much from the experience as students. This reciprocity can provide a rewarding experience for both the student and the mentor.

Click here to read the remainder of Forrest's paper. Click here to visit the Virtual Conference.