We often tell undergraduates who want to go to grad school to get involved in research as early as possible. But students enter college with wildly different backgrounds in coding, math, and physics. Most research advisors are happy to teach mentees the basics of their specific project, but don’t necessarily have the time or resources to provide in-depth instruction in fundamental skills. Undergraduate classes can fill some of these gaps, but “softer” skills – like critically reading papers, giving effective presentations, and building professional networks – usually aren’t taught at all. How do we ensure that all students have the chance to learn these skills, which are crucial for research success?
At Columbia University, a small group of astronomy faculty and grad students are trying to answer this question with a class called “Introduction to Research Skills in Astronomy” (IRSA). Launched in Spring 2024, IRSA is designed to introduce foundational research skills to students with little to no prior experience. I’ve had the opportunity to help shape the course as both the teaching assistant (TA) in its inaugural semester and the primary instructor in Spring 2025. By sharing my experiences and course materials, I’m hoping astronomers at other institutions might be inspired to start similar initiatives.
Goals
As its name suggests, the primary goal of IRSA is to introduce students to the skills needed to be successful in astronomy research. To accomplish this, I organized the class around three broad “skill buckets”:
- Navigating the astronomical literature: How and where to find papers; reading strategies; and an overview of the different types of papers (e.g. review vs. journal articles and preprints vs. published articles)
- Retrieving and analyzing data: Basic coding in Python (data types, conditionals, loops, functions, and packages); making plots; simple curve-fitting; retrieving data from Gaia and other online databases; and working with images and spectra
- Communicating results: Writing abstracts and giving effective oral presentations
Of course, many of the skills listed above could be the subject of their own classes (especially coding). My goal was simply to provide a foundation in each of these topics that students could build on during their later research experiences, with the idea that some exposure is much better than none. I also tried to provide plenty of extra resources so students could self-study beyond the level of the class if they wanted to.
IRSA’s second, equally-important goal is to demystify the process of becoming and being an astronomer. For many undergrads, the path from “I like astronomy” to “I do this for a living” is murky: do you have to pay to get a PhD? Is being a professor the only job option? And does “doing research” just mean sitting in front of a computer all day? I wanted to directly address questions like these in class. That way, my students could make an informed decision about whether or not astronomy was the right path for them, and plan their next steps with confidence if it was.
Structure
Although IRSA is open to anyone, we emphasize that it’s designed for students who both want to pursue astronomy as a career AND lack prior research experience. As a result, most of our students are first- and second-years who are considering majoring in physics or astronomy. In Spring 2025, I had 12 students; the year before, we had 13. We’ve found that a small cohort is ideal for both one-on-one interaction with students and in-class activities, both of which help to position the class as a bridge between “formal coursework” and “hands-on research.”
The core of my version of IRSA was a semester-long research project. Students learned about different subfields of astronomy in the first few weeks of class, then chose a topic to focus on for the rest of the semester. The project was divided into three major milestones corresponding to the “skill buckets” described above: a literature review (Milestone 1), data analysis task (Milestone 2), and final presentation with an accompanying written abstract (Milestone 3). Although the research topics and data analysis tasks were pre-defined, students also had the option to work with me directly to design an original project. (This is obviously difficult to scale, but worked well in my class of 12 students. The gravitational lensing project included in my course materials was the result of a student proposal!)
IRSA met once per week for three hours each time, following the typical schedule for an astronomy lab course at Columbia. I broke most sessions up into three distinct chunks: a research skills lecture/activity, a “soft” skills lecture/discussion, and working time. The research skills component focused on content relevant to the project milestone the students were actively working on, while the soft skills component addressed more general topics like career paths, finding research opportunities, and creating an effective CV. Working time was devoted to making progress on the semester-long projects, which provided opportunities for students to work together and ask me questions immediately if they got stuck. I will say that three hours is a long time to focus on anything, and the class might have been more effective if it was broken up into two sessions per week. But I think the general structure worked well to meet the learning goals I outlined above.
To facilitate the transition to hands-on research, IRSA also includes a “pitch session” towards the end of the semester, where grad students, postdocs, and faculty are invited to pitch summer research projects directly to IRSA students. This process is designed to be beneficial for both sides: students get the chance to immediately build on the skills they learned in IRSA, and mentors get to work with students that have already developed familiarity with the research process. In Spring 2025, we had 7 unique pitches, which led to summer positions for 5 students.
Outcomes
Student feedback for IRSA has been overwhelmingly positive. Over the two years that the class has been offered, 100% of exit survey respondents said that they would recommend it to others. In fact, many of my students in Spring 2025 joined because they heard positive recommendations from other astronomy majors.
In terms of research outcomes, 76% of exit survey respondents participated in summer research immediately after taking the class, often through opportunities that were presented in the pitch session. Several students from the first cohort also presented posters at “Astrofest,” our department’s annual research showcase, in September 2024. For me personally, catching up with these students and seeing their progress over the summer has been the most rewarding part of IRSA.
With only two cohorts of students so far, we don’t yet have enough data to evaluate IRSA’s long-term impact. But we’re encouraged by the enthusiasm we’ve seen so far from both the students and their research mentors. The department plans to keep offering the class in future years, and the curriculum will continue to evolve based on student feedback. Since the class is designed and taught by graduate students, it also provides valuable teaching experience for early-career scientists!
Looking ahead
If we expect undergraduates to dive into research early in their college careers, we must equip them with the tools they need to succeed. Most importantly, we need to ensure that the opportunity to learn fundamental research skills is accessible to all, regardless of background. IRSA is an experiment in doing exactly that. It doesn’t take the place of formal coursework or hands-on advising, but it lowers the barrier to entry and makes research feel accessible rather than mysterious.
At Columbia, IRSA has taken the form of a seminar course – but it would also work well as an extracurricular workshop, or a module within an existing course. If you’re interested in starting something similar at your institution, or are already involved in an IRSA-like initiative, I’d love to chat! Feel free to reach out at alexandra.masegian [at] columbia [dot] edu. And if you’d like to learn more about my implementation of IRSA, check out this Github repository, where I’ve uploaded my materials from Spring 2025.
With thanks to the rest of the IRSA team: David Helfand, Kathryn Johnston, Kiyan Tavangar, Aware Deshmukh, and Stream Team.
Astrobite edited by Annelia Anderson.
Featured image credit: Scarlet Sappho (InSapphoWeTrust), CC BY 2.0.
