The RISE program at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey helps undergraduate students develop scientific research skills. The student joined RISE in 2013 and took courses on scientific literature and writing techniques. These courses included seminars, workshops, and assignments on writing annotated bibliographies and seminar reflections. Through these activities, the student improved their reading, writing, and comprehension abilities. A key activity was writing a review paper, which helped the student learn how to critically evaluate published information and improve their research skills. Similar university programs also help students enhance their scientific thinking and benefit from research opportunities that better prepare them for scientific careers.

1. Nowadays, many universities have developed undergraduate scientific programs that promotestudent
participation in scientific research and improve their scientific skills by providing economic assistance at
the same time. Along these programs is the Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement(RISE) in the
University of Puerto Rico at Cayey (UPRC). I joined the RISE Program during the summer of 2013 and
took the Summer Bridge course and then made the cut to continue participating in the program to take
the Seminar Scientific Literature and Bibliography course. By taking this fall semester course, I have
developed into a more completescientistby taking and reflecting on many scientific seminars, workshops
and presentations, hence learning many new scientific writing techniques and improving my writing as a
scientist.
The classes taken this semester took place at the “Miguel Melendez Muñoz” (MMM) in room 201.
During class, our two professors usually gave presentations and workshops on how to prepare scientific
writings such as annotated bibliographies, seminar reflections and review papers, from which I learned
many new things and acquired new writing techniques. We also went to some seminars about
investigations done by researchers, where I learned a little about the different topics presented such as
Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the Turing Machine, C.elegans and the nervous system and adrenocortical
cells and LIPIN1. In addition to the seminars we also got a chance to talk about our future academic
goals, our doubts about the presentations and discuss some tips on what we should do to complete our
goal with some of the researchers who presented the seminars.
Besides the classes, seminars and workshops, we were assigned to apply what we learned in class and
write some scientific literature such as the ones stated before. When writing my first seminar reflection I
was confused and did not know what or how to prepare it and the fact that I had to do it in 150 words or
less did not help me. Nonetheless, I started improving my writing progressively and by the time I had to
write my fourth reflection I knew what to do step by step and how to do it. Another scientific literature
assigned were the annotated bibliographies, which I found even more difficult since first I had to choose
a theme, then find primary articles about that specific theme and finally I could start writing the
bibliographies. I never learned how to write the reference is CSE format correctly but I did refine my
reading, comprehension and writing skills.
The main purpose of this course is learning how to write a review paper, which are critical and
analytical evaluations of information that has already been published. Before searching for articles, I was
aware that I had to choose a topic of my interest, thus enjoy preparing the paper and not get bored. By
finding and reading the primary articles I acquired a fair amount of knowledge about the topic,
consequently being able to complete my review paper with the help of my two professors. Learning how
to write a review paper helped me improve my research and writing skills, identify the difference
between primary and secondary sources and learning about a topic aside of my studies.
Similar scientific programs are helping undergraduate students improve their research skills the same
way RISE is helping me. These programs help enhance the students’ scientific mind and give them a
chance to learn additional material aside from their school work. They also provide students with
research opportunities and help them approach the world of research with better preparation. Finally
they benefit these students by distinguishing them from other students and give them recognition.