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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Sep 5.
Published in final edited form as: Biochem Mol Biol Educ. 2014 Jun 4;42(4):331–338. doi: 10.1002/bmb.20802

Fig. 1. Traditional and GEAR training methods.

Fig. 1

Numerous students require research experience (colored circles). TOP PANEL: In the traditional one student - one mentor model of undergraduate research, the available faculty and laboratory space greatly limit the number of students selected for research projects (blue circles). Different mentors (red squares) then offer variable levels of guidance and training to their students. Project progress (straight arrows) is hampered by individual experimental failure and multiple repeats of the same task (curved arrows). BOTTOM PANEL: In GEAR, a large number of students are selected from the student body and placed in small groups under the guidance of a single mentor. All students receive consistent guidance from that mentor. In addition, students receive standardized guidance and training from the lecture content of GEAR. In the research component of GEAR, experimental failures by individual groups (represented by an x) do not restrict progress of the project as a whole. Successful groups (represented by an o) distribute products to failed groups, and the whole class moves to the next task. Individual groups receive overlapping sample sets in order to increase the n value and to verify the overall class results.