During the ten-week summer program, 
each trainee will spend approximately 90% of his or her time working under a mentor's supervision in the mentor's laboratory. Laboratory time will be focused on the ongoing research of the mentor and may range from basic laboratory procedures to the evaluation of clinical cases as part of a clinical research program. Each mentor will provide their student with detailed information on the background, goals and objectives, experimental design, materials and methods, data analyses plans, and real or anticipated results and conclusions of one experiment currently ongoing in the laboratory. The mentor will also be responsible for insuring that the student receives hands-on experience with at least one technique used in this study and is well versed in the theoretical basis of that technique. This information will form the basis of a research seminar to be given by the trainee to the other trainees and mentors.
At the end of the research module, students will present their research findings in a poster session open to all students and faculty in the CVMBS. Students will be instructed to present
background information, the hypothesis upon which their project was based, the objectives, the experimental methods they used, the results of their experiments, and a discussion of the implications of their work. We stress to trainees and mentors that the most important parts of the poster are the overall goals and objectives, and the specific techniques on which the trainee has focused. We have chosen these two points to stress because they give the group of trainees a better understanding of the research program of the mentors and yet provide the individual trainee a focus within the laboratory. Our experience indicates that it is unrealistic to expect trainees to conceive, design, conduct and report on a project of their own within the 3 month period. The approach we have chosen allows them to gain some indirect experience in all aspects of a research project. Each presentation is evaluated by the student's mentor, and the results of these evaluations are made available to the trainee. Evaluation forms and seminar style are discussed with trainees prior to the first journal club, so that they are adequately prepared. In addition to the poster presentation given at the end of the summer research program, we will require the students to present their research at a poster session at the Merck-Merial National Veterinary Scholars Symposium in August and during the CVMBS Research Day each February. This will give them the added experience of preparing and presenting a poster as well as providing them experience with a larger audience.
