To me, the quality that makes a student not a burden is the following:

A willingness to learn for themselves and good judgement about when to stop and ask for feedback.*

If a student isn't willing to try things out and learn independently, then it creates a burden on the supervisor. I really don't appreciate when a student asks me how to do something before they do a basic Google search.

Similarly, if a student doesn't know how to judge when he/she is "stuck" and needs help, this also creates a burden on the supervisor (because the supervisor has to keep checking on the student to make sure they're progressing).

The dos and don'ts that come to mind are:

• Do ask your supervisor this question at the very beginning, to find out what he/she expects from you.
• Do take detailed notes when you have a meeting with your supervisor or somebody teaches you how to do something, so you can refer to them later
• Do keep a written record of your own attempts and progress (such as a lab notebook) to show your supervisor during meetings
• Do ask a question if you don't understand an instruction or something that is said, because it will be much better for everyone involved if you clear things up sooner rather than later.
• Do mention your own ideas to your supervisor, if you have some that you think will make your research better.
• Don't think that just because you are an undergraduate, you can't make much of a contribution. Obviously experience helps, but it's really only a small piece of what makes someone a skilled researcher. Willingness to learn is a much bigger piece, IMO. I've had high-school summer interns who were better than any of the M.S. students in the lab, simply because they put in more effort to learn.

* Source: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research, by Marian Petre & Gordon Rugg

To me, the quality that makes a student not a burden is the following:

A willingness to learn for themselves and good judgement about when to stop and ask for feedback.*

If a student isn't willing to try things out and learn independently, then it creates a burden on the supervisor. I really don't appreciate when a student asks me how to do something before they do a basic Google search.

Similarly, if a student doesn't know how to judge when he/she is "stuck" and needs help, this also creates a burden on the supervisor (because the supervisor has to keep checking on the student to make sure they're progressing).

The dos and don'ts (to avoid being a "burden") that come to mind are:

• Do ask your supervisor this question at the very beginning, to find out what he/she expects from you.
• Do take detailed notes when you have a meeting with your supervisor or somebody teaches you how to do something, so you can refer to them later
• Do keep a written record of your own attempts and progress (such as a lab notebook) to show your supervisor during meetings
• Do ask a question if you don't understand an instruction or something that is said, because it will be much better for everyone involved if you clear things up sooner rather than later.
• Do mention your own ideas to your supervisor, if you have some that you think will make your research better.
• Don't think that just because you are an undergraduate, you can't make much of a contribution. Obviously experience helps, but it's really only a small piece of what makes someone a skilled researcher. Willingness to learn is a much bigger piece, IMO. I've had high-school summer interns who were better than any of the M.S. students in the lab, simply because they put in more effort to learn.

* Source of the quote: The Unwritten Rules of PhD Research, by Marian Petre & Gordon Rugg