Preparing for your Ph.D. lab rotation: learning from Disney Channel movies

[David Reiner]

**Okay, this post is going to be a bit silly, but I hope a helpful way to de-stress during this time.**

Available through Disney+, Disney Channel Original movies, released in the late 90’s and early 00’s, offer a familiar format: the protagonist moves to a new place and must learn about the people and culture there in order to thrive. In a similar way, during a lab rotation, a Ph.D. student moves to a new lab, and must learn about the lab techniques and lab culture, in order to effectively and efficiently design experiments, collect, analyze, and interpret data, and communicate those findings to other lab members. In Disney Channel movies, the protagonist often is reluctant to accept “the new normal” of their situation and only does so when given a “push” by another character, often a parent or peer. In lab rotations, the Ph.D. student needs to seek guidance from the PI (parent figure) or other lab members (peer figures) to excel in the lab. The Disney Channel protagonist must often learn a new skill to gain acceptance in the community. For example, in Johnny Tsunami, teenage Hawaiian surfer Johnny Kapahaala, learns how to snow board and uses this new skill to unite the skiing and snowboarding communities in Vermont. In the lab rotation, the Ph.D. student learns new experimental skills to build upon his/her scientific background and advance a new or ongoing project in the lab. In the same way that Johnny Kapahaala finds an extended family on the mountain, the Ph.D. student ideally finds a supportive family atmosphere among the lab, which is an underappreciated but significant aspect of choosing a Ph.D. thesis lab. These Disney Channel movies can be a bit cheesy but watching them can be a light distraction during these difficult times and can help you think about what to look for and how to prepare for a Ph.D. lab rotation or more broadly, any new work environment.

**Note: I'm not affiliated with Disney and did not receive any compensation for this post.**

Edited April 28, 2020 by David Reiner