9322162 Hatch This award provides funds to continue a successful REU SITE at the University of Massachusetts, Boston for another three years. The two complementary components of the program are: (1) individual research projects in which each student works closely with an advisor/mentor experienced with undergraduates, and (2) weekly lectures/discussions for all the students. Eleven undergraduates will participate in research with nine faculty sponsors in the Department of Biology. Students will be recruited intensively in the Boston area and also elsewhere in New England and further afield, with particular attention to women, minorities and non-traditional students. The research is focused on issues of biodiversity and conservation ecology but topics are intentionally diverse. They include three on the behavioral ecology of rare/endangered vertebrates, and others on the physiological ecology of Lepidoptera, the diversity of bacteria, the genetics of endangered plants, and the genetic diversity of deep-sea mollusks. Each student will prepare a report and present a short paper in a student research symposium. The group meetings will address the theory and practice of research and its conduct or its implications, including ethical issues. Some of these ethical components will be shared with REU students at Wellesley College and Boston University. Participants will also visit two or more field sites and learn directly about each others' projects. A small hands-on workshop on molecular techniques will show the great potential of such methods for ecology. An end-of-session retreat at the University Field Station on Nantucket Island will serve to articulate impressions, explore philosophical issues, and weave together some of the summers' threads. ***
