This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate and is supported by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. This summer internship program aims to educate undergraduate students by giving them first-hand experience in how psychological research is conducted and help them develop professional skills in science. Developmental science is a field of psychology concerned with the development of children who are facing a dynamically changing reality while teachers, parents, and policy makers are experiencing heightened demand for making rapid decisions affecting children world-wide. To support them, developmental science advances evidence-based theory and practice of promoting child development and well-being. Therefore, it is critical for individuals of many professions to gain the skill-sets for using and interpreting scientific findings through active participation in state-of-the-art developmental science research. To help with these educational goals, each year 7 undergraduate interns will participate in a 10-week summer internship program that includes (1) hands-on research-participation in active empirical research projects, directly supervised by faculty with a strong track-record of involving undergraduates in their research, (2) teaching modules to offer training in advanced behavioral and neuroscience methods and develop programming skills for using state-of-the-art statistics software, and (3) professional development training to tutor academic writing, science communication to the public, and how to write strong graduate school applications for a career in science. Recruitment is focused on a diverse group of undergraduates, including those from smaller universities and colleges that do not have the opportunity to be involved in active psychological research at their home institutions. Therefore, priority is given to under-represented minority students and first-generation college students through several recruitment mechanisms with organizations and databases that reach these target populations.
By working collaboratively with faculty members and graduate students at the University of Michigan, summer interns become actively involved in pursuing specific projects in developmental science focused on the cognitive development of young children. The interns collect and analyze scientific data as part of behavioral and neuroscience studies. They learn how to write and present scientific research, including academic writing and statistical data analysis, as well as poster presentations at the Department of Psychology and scientific conferences. Moreover, through collaborations with local museums in Ann Arbor, Michigan, interns will learn about science communication with the greater public. The broader impact of this is to break down boundaries and strengthen their resolve in becoming scientists themselves. In addition to their primary research project, interns participate in weekly meetings and formal training sessions introducing them to core tenets of developmental science and career paths in the discipline. Professional training modules, a mentoring agreement, assessment tools for the interns’ short-term and long-term professional goals, and an alumni network to help with further career steps all aim to promote diversity and inclusion not only in recruitment, but in fostering long-term success of the interns of this REU site.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
