This award will support the participation of 10 undergraduate students each year in the Research Experiences for Undergraduates program offered by the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior (CISAB) at Indiana University, Bloomington. The program is ten weeks in length and focuses on recruiting undergraduate students from groups currently underrepresented in the sciences. This program is a new REU site that will build on the formal undergraduate internship program offered by CISAB for the past two years and on CISAB's collective experience with undergraduate training. Students will conduct research projects and present their findings at a concluding symposium. They will also attend (1) a team-taught course introducing research issues and techniques in the areas represented by CISAB faculty, (2) classes on mentoring and career issues taught via the Committee on Institutional Cooperation's campus-wide Summer Research Opportunities Program, and (3) seminars on ethics and conduct in science taught in conjunction with the Poynter Center for the Study of Ethics & American Institutions. The program will give students intensive research experience and will introduce them to science as a profession, to interdisciplinary modes of thinking, and to specific research techniques used in the study of animal behavior. This award will foster the continued education and training of individuals who will be part of the next generation of basic researchers in the diverse aspects of animal behavior.
