This award provides funding for a new Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at Texas A&M University at Galveston (TAMUG). The program will support ten students during a ten week summer research program over a three year period (2009-2011). The program will include independent research projects by the students, participation in a weekly summer lecture series on scientific and career-related topics. It will conclude with a written report and student poster and oral presentations. Students will also participate in a variety of field trips and laboratory tours. Funding supports student stipends, room and board, travel, and some field trip expenses. Students will be encouraged to publish in peer-reviewed journals and participate in national conferences following the summer research program. TAMUG will conduct a national recruiting effort and will focus local recruiting efforts on four Hispanic Serving Institutions, including UT Brownsville, UT Pan America, TAMU Kingsville, and TAMU Corpus-Christi, in support of OCE's efforts to increase the diversity of students and faculty in ocean sciences. As required by NSF REU program, most of the students will be selected from schools other than TAMUG.
Major goals of Project: Our goal, through the TAMUG-REU SITE was to attract highly talented, including those students from underrepresented groups from various disciplines and introduce them to the complex environmental issues facing the world’s coastal ocean and estuaries with the primary focus on the northern Gulf of Mexico. The TAMUG REU SITE program was characterized by six broad goals: Recruit academically promising students from underrepresented populations Provide meaningful undergraduate research experiences in Marine Science and Marine Biology Increase the number of undergraduates with research skills and experiences Provide meaningful mentoring opportunities for our graduate students Increase the exposure of TAMUG undergraduates, graduate students and faculty to a more diverse population of talented undergraduates Improve long-term student outcomes (e.g. graduate school matriculation and careers in the marine sciences) Recruit non-traditional students, Military Veterans returning from active duty Recruit students who are the first generation to attend university. We completed the internship program and met 100% of our goals. We recruited 44.5% from under represented groups We recruited 33% who were non-traditional students, including a single mother, two of these, including the single monther have already been accepted into graduate school. We recruited on veteran returning from active duty, he has been accepted into grad school, starting in the Fall (2013) 33% of the interns recruited were the first in their family to attend university. Major accomplishments: Weekly Lunch Sessions- Each Thursday the students were hosted with a lunch and a guest speaker who address a range of topics from grad school preparation to current research being conducted in respective fields. Field Trips- The interns participated in a number of field trips and other activities. These included a canoe trip through Armand Bayou, investigating the freshwater tidal wetlands environment, including an investigation into the impact of Hurricane Ike on the marshes, the impact of invasive species, the impact of local subsidence and successes of various strategies for marsh and subaquatic vegetation restoration. A half day trip of both beach and bayside seining was conducted to investigate the zooplankton and juvenile fishes in each of the sampled environments. We took the interns a cruises on the R/V Milan to investigate estuarine ecology and learn field sampling and identification techniques, while bag seining. In addition, each intern was able to participate in at least one half-day boat trip to assist in field research on dolphin behaviors in Galveston Bay. Organized Student Social Activities-A number of organized social activities were provided during the program, listed in Table 4. These events started with a Welcoming BBQ Lunch which was hosted at the TAMUG Cafeteria on Pelican Island. This event was open to the entire TAMUG community, with all Faculty and Graduate Student mentors in attendance as well many of the other TAMUG faculty. On the first Sunday of the program, Dr. Seitz, the TAMUG Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, hosted a pool party and BBQ at his waterfront home on Dickinson Bayou. All REU participants and mentors and a wide variety of guests were invited and participated. The final event was a banquet dinner at a local Italian restaurant, this occurred the evening of the student symposium and poster session. The PI’s and the all of the REU participants were invited to attend and the event was well attended. The REU participants were given certificates of participation and special gag awards were made to the mentors. The evening proved to be an excellent end to the entire program. The TAMUG NSF REU Summer Intern Symposium was held on August 1, the last Wednesday of the program. The symposium included a morning Oral presentation program as well as an afternoon poster session. The event was open to the entire TAMUG community. This event was very well attended by the TAMUG research community as well as some family and friends of the interns and proved to be a very high-end experience for all participants. For most of the interns, this was the first time they had given scientific oral and poster presentations, and it proved to be a very good confidence building experience. The interns were provided their posters to take home with them after the presentations. We had four (4) peer review publications submitted or published with REU Interns as co-authors from the 2012 program and one presentation at a national meeting Of the nine (9) interns from the 2012 program, two are still undergraduates, of the seven (7) who graduated, four (4) have been admitted into graduate school (57%) and one is pursuing a teaching career in biology and one is doing an internship in marine biology and one is working in a research laboratory.
