Solving open problems with students as a first research experience

Abstract In this article, we share some experiences about working with students on research projects. Instead of giving them problems from our own projects to work, we use open problems from journals. Using these resources we have worked with several undergraduate and some graduate students giving them a taste of their first research experience. Here we describe how these projects were conducted and the various criteria we thought about when we found the right problems for the students to work on. We also give a list of problems that our students worked on and the books and articles the students may read in order to get ready for the projects.