From "Good Enough" to Quantified: Improving Undergraduate Micropipetting with Deliberate Practice.

Micropipetting underpins most experiments in biochemistry and molecular biology labs, yet students are rarely given structured practice to master it. Inaccurate pipetting adds avoidable uncertainty to measurements and can erode confidence in experimental results. At the same time, instructors have few simple tools to diagnose and improve students’ skills. Here we present practical guidelines that use gravimetric and spectrophotometric assays for rapid assessment of pipetting precision and accuracy. We show how the gravimetric assay can be adapted into a short, deliberate-practice routine suitable for undergraduate laboratories and research settings. An initial implementation with undergraduate researchers indicates that this approach enables quick, measurable gains in micropipetting performance and provides students with immediate, data-driven feedback on a core experimental skill.