Undergraduate neuroscience students must learn how to effectively produce discipline-specific genres. Evidence suggests research experience may help students learn to write for discipline-specific purposes; yet, a need exists for more available methods of research experience than lab experiments. As an investigation into a more available method, this thesis presents a case study of an experiential activity used in a neuroscience writing course at one medium-sized, Canadian university. Using rhetorical genre theory, this study investigated if and how this experiential activity, which took place outside of the lab, helped students discursively construct the social role of researcher and learn how to write for disciplinary purposes. An inductive, thematic analysis of in-class observations, interviews, and open-ended questionnaire responses suggests that the research experience provided by this activity may help neuroscience students bridge the roles of student and professional researcher to effectively write for their discipline, in both physical and virtual environments.