NSF funding will establish an Undergraduate Research and Mentoring Program in the Department of Biological Sciences at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). The objectives of the URM program are to attract, mentor, and prepare undergraduate students historically underrepresented in scientific research for graduate studies in life sciences. FAU is a minority institution as well as a Hispanic serving university. The undergraduate scholars will participate in weekly meetings with the PIs (academic mentoring) to discuss their projects and receive feedback on their research experience and in activities aimed at strengthening their science related skills. Each student will also be paired with a faculty mentor (research mentoring) who will train and guide the student in the specific area of research of the mentor. The areas of research include; a) Conservation Biology, b) Marine Biology and Behavior, and c) Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology. These areas will be linked together by judicious choice of projects that will highlight the integrated nature of the program. The FAU-URM program will train students in a variety of research areas that will facilitate their movement into, graduate programs In addition; this URM will enhance the workforce development for SE Florida in anticipation of growing employment opportunities in life science institutions. For example, Scripps of Florida, the Torrey Pines Institute the USGS are adding facilities on or adjacent to FAU campuses as well as a variety of nearby state and federal laboratories. PIs: Rodney Murphey, Florida Atlantic University, Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences rmurphey@fau.edu ; Evelyn Frazier, Florida Atlantic University, Department of Biological Sciences, efrazier@fau.edu. For additional information, visit www.science.fau.edu/biology/
PI: Rodney Murphey and CoPI: Evelyn Frazier The demographics of our country have been changing over the last few decades such that African Americans, Hispanics, Indo Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are becoming a significant portion of the population. In spite of this they continue to be under represented in science. Innovation through scientific discoveries has always been a key component of the American economic success and to maintain that position we need to train more scientists. The main goal of this grant proposal was to attract, mentor and prepare undergraduate students from historically underrepresented groups for a successful career in science. We recruited primarily minority students to our program. Thirty students were trained through this program over five years and 70% of them were from minority groups. We had 100% graduation rates, 60% of our students are applying or are enrolled in Graduate programs, 27% in Medical Programs, 7% in other health related post graduate programs and 6% unknown. The undergraduate scholars in the program authored 14 research articles published in peer-reviewed journals. They were also awarded research and travel grants to develop and present their research at scientifc meetings. Their research findings have been presented at several international, national, regional and local scientific meetings. Our success with these students can be attributed to their success in a research environment. Undergraduate research experiences are known to increase student academic achievement, critical thinking skills, communication skills and their decision to pursue a post-graduate education. Several aspects of the research experience contribute to these outcomes. The first being that research is conducted through mentoring in small groups and when successful it results in a positive relationship between the research mentor and his/her mentee that fosters intellectual growth. There is a sense of belonging to a community of peers and the sense that your project is important to answer a small part of a bigger puzzle. This sense of belonging is very important, and especially so to minority students, in engaging students into taking ownership for their own learning and being responsible for solving their part in the bigger puzzle. We implemented two levels of mentoring: the research mentoring which is a relationship between the student and a researcher and happens within the laboratory and the academic mentoring implemented by the Principal investigators in this grant and the students. In the academic mentoring we trained students on all other skills that scientists need to succeed but are not learned within the laboratory. In their research mentorship, students were assigned a project by the research mentor and dedicated a large amount of time to working in the laboratories. During the summer months they worked full time (35 hours a week) to learn the laboratory skills and develop the project. In fall and spring students would dedicate an average of 10 hours a week to do their lab work. Once they had obtained data we worked with the students on how to prepare posters to present at research conferences, and finally on how to write a manuscript. Students were provided funds to attend and present their work at conferences as well as learn how to network and make new contacts and establish collaborations with other researchers.
