Title: Welcome to Your Biotechnology Experience
Course: BTEC-2000-301-302-303-F21 > Section: Welcome to Your Biotechnology Experience

This module will help you begin the internship in the InnovaBio® lab. You will be unable to access the later modules and begin your internship until you have completed the tasks in this module.

The InnovaBio® lab offers a unique opportunity to participate in research as if you were working at a biotechnology company. The experience you gain in this lab will prepare you for success in industry and in reaching your educational goals. The InnovaBio® lab focuses on conducting experiments to solve real research problems.

While you will be conducting real experiments, this lab focuses on providing a supportive educational environment. The InnovaBio® staff are there to help you become the best employee and scientist you can be; take advantage of the experience they have to help you learn.

To maintain an atmosphere of supportive learning, we have two core philosophies:

1. Ask questions. Every person, including other interns, is in the lab to help you learn. We believe you don’t really understand something until you can explain it to someone else. As a new intern you can help others to better understand by asking them questions. As you learn and become more experienced, you will answer questions for other interns.
2. You will make mistakes. It is part of the learning process. You will better understand the biological system if you can figure out why each reagent is needed for the experiment--even if that means figuring out why it’s so important when you forget to add it. There is always the opportunity to do the experiment again and correct your mistake. It is important as a scientist to be able to distinguish between a technical mistake and negative data.

The course will give you experience in a research-based internship program. You will need to complete all 100 hours of internship experience.

It is important that you spend at least 10 hours in the lab each week. Why? Because you will be a better intern (employee), learn more, stay current with project experiments and findings, and finish your internship hours in a semester’s time.