Our lab works to cultivate a lively community where people feel safe, respected, and connected with each other. Between our lab meetings and our friendly environment, it is common for undergraduates to make good friends with their lab mates!

It is likely that you will be working with at least one other person in the lab at any given time. We encourage our undergraduates to talk with their peers during animal care as it helps to bolster our friendly environment and make connections.

In order to make sure that our undergraduates are truly comfortable with the spiders before they help with research, we do require that students start on animal care before moving to research. However, after an undergraduate is comfortable with the spiders, they are encouraged to join an ongoing project. The tasks range from data analysis to running trials to completing fun tasks needed pre-trial!

Yes! We definitely want students to have opportunities to dive deeper into the questions that they have and the subjects they are passionate about. Curiosity is a cornerstone of research, and a cornerstone of our lab; if you continue asking questions, a research project may very well be in your future!

Field work is an exciting opportunity, and undergraduates do have access to that opportunity should they be interested. To be involved in field research, it is important that you express your interest because we do take several collecting trips a year, and it is always nice to have more hands!