Nice post! We tried this in the past. I also surveyed the group on opinions of lab meeting themes. Very mixed opinions! The issue we ran into with a game meeting is the perception that these meetings are optional. thus, we had low(er) participation. We see a similar thing with writing clubs and to a lesser degree journal clubs. The only things that consistently draw everyone are research updates or guest speakers. We’re not quite large enough for a whole semester of research updates. But we haven’t found a magic formula, probably because our needs are constantly changing.
For a time, a collaboration I was a part of did monthly 'student, technician, and trainee' calls that had a large social component to it. We talked shop, discussing the minutia of field work, but also a lot about our interests and lives.
This is so interesting. Not a scientist but I teach architecture. We managed to shift most everything online during the pandemic, including design studio (closest thing to a lab in our field). But we never managed to duplicate the social interactions and casual community building. Nor the natural ways grad students acted as role models for the undergrads. It’s taken years of intentional gatherings etc, to get back what we lost.
Nice post! We tried this in the past. I also surveyed the group on opinions of lab meeting themes. Very mixed opinions! The issue we ran into with a game meeting is the perception that these meetings are optional. thus, we had low(er) participation. We see a similar thing with writing clubs and to a lesser degree journal clubs. The only things that consistently draw everyone are research updates or guest speakers. We’re not quite large enough for a whole semester of research updates. But we haven’t found a magic formula, probably because our needs are constantly changing.
For a time, a collaboration I was a part of did monthly 'student, technician, and trainee' calls that had a large social component to it. We talked shop, discussing the minutia of field work, but also a lot about our interests and lives.
This is so interesting. Not a scientist but I teach architecture. We managed to shift most everything online during the pandemic, including design studio (closest thing to a lab in our field). But we never managed to duplicate the social interactions and casual community building. Nor the natural ways grad students acted as role models for the undergrads. It’s taken years of intentional gatherings etc, to get back what we lost.