This award provides renewed funding for a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the University of Rhode Island (URI). The program is called the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships in Oceanography (SURFO) and offers a 10-week research/educational program designed to expose 9 undergraduates per year to cutting-edge, authentic, oceanographic research at the URI?s Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) located in Narragansett, RI. Each student will work with a research advisor and graduate student to develop/conduct a research project in an area of oceanography appropriate to each student's background and interests. The research or educational niche filled by the SURFO program deals with the more quantitative aspects of oceanography, which closely parallels the strengths of GSO/URI. GSO also plans to expand the scope of the research projects to include renewable energy to complement their recently state-funded center of excellence for Research on Offshore Renewable Energy. The research projects undertaken by participants are typically part of a separate NSF funded research program, but the student project focuses on an interesting aspect of the research that was not anticipated. As such, these projects are often high-risk and high-reward for which support for the PIs or graduate students was not budgeted. These types of projects truly give the student a taste of the successes and frustrations of authentic, cutting-edge research. Many of the student projects represent important initial results for subsequent research proposals or publications. The primary undergraduate population targeted by the program includes students with strong backgrounds in math, physics, computer science, and engineering. Students who have completed their junior year of undergraduate education are preferred participants, but well-qualified sophomores or matriculating seniors are also considered. Students from under-represented groups in the geosciences and students with limited exposure to oceanographic research at their home institutions are highly sought. The SURFO program exposes students to a broad spectrum of oceanographic research across various sub-disciplines. The program provides students with exposure to the expectations and lifestyle of graduate school. These combined experiences are expected to result in better-prepared graduate students and faster degree completion times.
The site is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
(SURFO) program is a 10-week research/educational program designed to expose undergraduates to cutting-edge, authentic, oceanographic research at the Graduate School of Oceanography (GSO) at the University of Rhode Island. Each student works with a research advisor and graduate student to develop and conduct a research project in an area of oceanography appropriate to each student's background and interests. This grant supported 29 SURFOs. Most students were between their junior and senior year of college. Projects gave the student a taste of the successes and frustrations of authentic, cutting-edge research. Many of the student projects represented important initial results for subsequent research proposals or publications. The twenty-nine projects encompassed a broad range of topics: the effect of air-sea interaction on hurricanes, evaluation of the capacity of optical coatings to deter biofouling, methods to measure black carbon, factors that drive diatom reproduction, viability of fungi at high pressure, to name a few. One SURFO participated in a two-month cruise aboard the R/V Endeavor and journalled her experience in near-real time. The SURFO program exposed students to a broad spectrum of oceanographic research across various sub-disciplines through introductory lectures and hot-topic lectures such as ocean acidification, climate change, and mantle-plume interactions. Specifically designed workshops addressed essential tools required for a career in research: laboratory safety, scientific writing, presentation, ethics, inquiry-driven research philosophy, how to choose and apply to graduate school. The program provided students with exposure to the expectations and lifestyle of graduate school. Near the end of the program each SURFO gave a 15-minute presentation on their research at a GSO-wide event and produced a scientific manuscript. A subset, ~11, SURFOs presented their research at national meetings. SURFOs were quickly entrained into the GSO community and volunteered to help on local research cruises and campus science fairs. One summative assessment of the program can be measured by the number of projects that result in publications or by the number of participants that continue on to graduate school in oceanography. About 60% of the SURFOs funded by this grant are in or have recently graduated from graduate programs in science, engineering, or math. We began a retrospective self-assessment to gauge program effectiveness for recruiting participants with quantitative skills, providing an authentic research experience, improving content knowledge of oceanography and exposing students to an academic research environment. We identified program components that impact confidence and comfort level toward core math, science, engineering, and oceanography related content knowledge, research skills, and the staff of the SURFO program and the GSO/URI research environment. The anonymous survey was implemented at key time intervals, pre-assessment at the beginning of the program, formative assessment after the initial talks, summative assessment at the end of the programs and finally, student reassessment of their initial ranking. Results allowed us to evaluate potential program adjustments during the summer as well as between programs. Exit questionnaire comments indicate that the program achieved its fundamental goal to provide an authentic research experience: ``I did not realize how much time research takes (2009).’’ ``It is the nature of a research project to have occasional setbacks in the laboratory. I found the project to have several exciting moments as well as times when I felt perplexed (2011).’’ ``It has reinforced my desire to go into oceanography by showing me that I can do this kind of work and succeed (2009).’’ ``It has made oceanography a much more viable future (2010).’’
