An award has been made to the University of Oregon that will provide research training for 10 weeks for 10 students, during the summers of 2011- 2013. The REU Site Program in molecular biosciences focuses in studies involving molecular biology, structural biology and biophysics, developmental and cellular biology, molecular neurobiology, and molecular evolution. The Departments of Biology and Chemistry, the Institute of Molecular Biology, the Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Institute of Neuroscience have about 40 faculty potentially participating in the program. There is a wide range of exciting projects for interns. Interns participate in a full-time closely mentored lab research project as well as seminars and various professional development workshops, such as the responsible conduct of research, professional communication skills, career opportunities in industry and academia, and the graduate school application process. Interns also have field trips, e.g. the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, the Pine Mountain Astronomical Observatory, and the Newberry Crater. Each REU host lab is fully equipped with state of the art molecular bioscience tools, and the Institutes have extensive shared facilities. Interns are selected based on academic record, research interest, and exceptional potential for research careers in molecular biosciences. REU alumni are tracked to determine their continued interest in their academic field of study, their career paths, and the lasting influences of the research experience. Program evaluation is done formatively and summatively, internally and externally, and the assessment includes use of an REU common assessment tool. More information is available by visiting http://biology.uoregon.edu/UOREU/ and by contacting the PI (Dr. Peter M. O'Day at oday@uoregon.edu).
(UO-REU) for 2011-2014 were all met with success. Our objectives for the program included: elevating national STEM competence; enhancing access to research careers for students with limited access to research experiences; broadening participation of minority researchers in STEM careers; and training graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to become effective mentors. The UO-REU provided comprehensive and focused training for interns to prepare for graduate education and careers in research. In the process, graduate students and postdocs developed mentoring skills important for their careers. UO-REU contributed to important gains toward our diversity action strategy for UO graduate programs. The UO-REU interns broadcast and elevated the reputation of our research programs nationwide and increased the network of students from under-represented groups who consider research careers. Our goals for individual UO-REU interns included: acquiring experience-based education in science research; developing core competencies; appreciating experimental approaches, strategic design, & creative reasoning; developing technical skills; enhancing deductive and inductive reasoning skills; enhancing communication skills; boosting personal confidence by professional and social interactions with faculty, postdocs, and grad students; and gaining insights into graduate education and research environments. For the years reported here, UO-REU trained 68 interns recruited from groups traditionally underrepresented in the sciences, students with disabilities, and students from institutions offering only limited access to research opportunities. We provided training mentors that enhanced their productivity and enthusiasm for careers that include mentoring. We provided a workshop series on professional development that included topics: the enterprise of research science; responsible conduct of research; maintaining lab notebook and data; reading and evaluating scientific literature; internet-based research tools; developing and writing scientific articles; creating and presenting formal scientific oral and poster presentations; diversity in science; career advising, negotiating graduate and professional schools; accessing career opportunities in life sciences. We provided training in scientific communication to enhance skills in speaking and writing with precision and enthusiasm. For evaluating the program, we employed formative and summative approaches to assess and improve all aspects of the program. Both internal and external evaluations were done each year. Implementation evaluations and progress evaluations were made. We tracked the career progress of REU alumni to gauge the influence of their collective educational experiences on their career choices. Our results indicate that UO-REU has provided valuable research experiences each year to all interns, effectively trained undergraduates in research methodologies and culture, enhanced their access to research careers, helped increase the diversity in life science fields of research, and effectively trained graduate students and postdoctoral fellows to become effective mentors. We find that UO-REU promoted awareness, confidence, and understanding through active learning. Interns advanced discovery and understanding, and bench mentors gained experience and advice in teaching and training. The UO-REU broadened participation of students from under-represented groups. Most interns’ presented their findings at national conferences, providing key dissemination and enhancing science and technological understanding broadly. Mentors, postdocs, and graduate students developed important skills through experiential learning. These outcomes carry very significant intellectual merit, having made contributions to fields in molecular biosciences in which the undergraduate researchers endeavored. These fields included developmental biology, molecular neurobiology, molecular evolution, ecology and environmental sciences, gene regulation, genomics, bioinformatics, computational and mathematical biology, biomolecular dynamics, microbiology, epigenetics, and others. Our outcomes have very significant broader impact, raining a new generation of scientists as creative and rigorous investigators into the nature of life on a molecular landscape. Most of our UO-REU participants are currently pursuing very promising careers in research and life sciences.
