An award has been made to Iowa State University to continue a Research Experience for Undergraduates Sites (REU) program, which has been running every summer since 1998. This REU program will provide a rich research experience to ten undergraduate students for ten weeks each year, for the summers of 2011- 2013. The program seeks to attract undergraduate students from academic institutions that serve minority populations and from small liberal arts colleges where scientific research opportunities are not readily available. Additionally, this program will actively recruit off-duty National Guard students and veterans. Outstanding students who have finished their freshmen, sophomore or junior years and who have interest in research careers will join a selected group of active investigators at Iowa State campus conducting full-time laboratory research on molecular biology, biotechnology and genomics of animals, microbes and plants. Typical projects will include gene cloning and characterization, functional genomic analyses, expression of foreign genes in bacteria and plants, molecular genetics, and analysis of proteomes and transcriptomes. The student experience will be further enriched by several activities outside the laboratory setting. These structured activities will include bioethics training through lectures, practical exercises, and case studies, as well as weekly seminar and discussion sessions with scientists on different research problems and career options. The program will place emphasis on enhancing students? abilities in critical thinking, problem solving and scientific communication (both written and oral targeted to the general public and scientific communities). The students will also have the opportunity to visit public and private research institutions (such as Pioneer HiBred International and others) and interact with Iowa family farmers to experience rural life. The impact of summer research training will be assessed through formal evaluations during and immediately after the training. In addition, students will have an opportunity to assess the program utilizing a common assessment tool that other REU Program Directors use. Informal contacts by mentors with the students will be used to monitor progress and career decisions of the students. More information is available by visiting www.reu.iastate.edu/, or by contacting the Program Directors Dr. Kan Wang (kanwang@iastate.edu; 515-294-4429) or Dr. Max Rothschild (mfrothsc@iastate.edu), or by email reu@iastate.edu.
This REU "Molecular Biotechnology and Genomics" is a summer training program funded by NSF since 1998. The renewal grant (2011-2014) proposed to continue the successful program and provide a rich research experience to ten undergraduate students for ten weeks each summer. The program seeks to attract undergraduate students from academic institutions that serve minority populations and from small liberal arts colleges where scientific research opportunities are not readily available. Our specific recruitment goal was to have a program consists of 50% female students, 50% underrepresented students, and 60-80% sophomore and junior students with no or little research experiences. Recruiting typically began around the mid of December each year for the following summer. We broadcasted our program mainly via mass email distribution to Midwestern small colleges and 1890s land grant schools through personal contacts established in the past year. Student applied the program electronically. Selected students were informed via direct emails or phone calls. Recruited students were then paired with carefully selected faculty members one month ahead of starting date to ensure enough time for mentor-student interaction prior to arrival. From 2011 to 2014, a total of 33 undergraduate students were recruited and trained in this summer program. These students, with an average of GPA of 3.58, were selected from a total of 463 applicants (average GPA of 3.56) with completed applications. The accepting rate was 7.1%. The gender diversity of the applicants was 37.6% male and 61.6% female; but among the REU students, it was 45.5% male and 54.5% female. Among the 33 students, 45.5% was junior at time of application, 36.4% sophomore, 12.1% senior and 6.1% freshman. Fifty-eight percent of the students did not have any research experience prior to the REU program and 95% of students came from non-research institutions. The cohort consisted of 48.5% under-represented groups (24.2% African American, 21.2% Hispanic and 3% Pacific Islander). The remaining students were 45.5% White and 6.1% Asian American. We were able to recruit two veteran/active National Guard members. Students were from Midwest (14), South (9), East (5), Puerto Rico/Mexico (4), and from American Samoa (1). The 10-week program started in the last week of May each summer. The students joined a selected group of active investigators on the Iowa State University campus conducting full-time laboratory research on molecular biology, biotechnology and genomics of animals, microbes and plants. One of the goals of this program is to teach student how to conduct research. The students took a general lab safety training course and two 3-hr bioethics classes, in which students learned and discussed issues related to planning experiments, the use of animals in research, and the ethics of reporting results. All students learned a number of lab skills associated with their projects including most basic skills in a modern molecular biology lab. Most of the students were working independently during the second part of the program. This program also emphasized training students how to effectively communicate their projects with both the scientific community and general public. Around the week 4, the students were requested to submit a 5-page proposal of their projects outlining the objectives, experimental strategies, anticipated outcomes and analysis methods. Each proposal was critiqued by three peer interns. This process required the students to fully understand the purpose and approaches of their projects. In the end of the program, the students were asked to present a 15-min talk in a mini-symposium to the entire REU mentor/intern group and a 3-hr poster presentation to other REU programs. The students learned how to present their projects and findings to the general public by writing a one-page interpretive summary. To further enrich student experiences, we organized weekly seminar and discussion sessions on different research problems and career options, and field trips to visit Iowa farms and a number of public and private research institutions. The impact of summer research training was assessed through formal evaluations during and immediately after the training. In addition, students had an opportunity to assess the program utilizing a common assessment tool offered by NSF. We follow career tracks of the 33 REU students. As of December of 2014, 26/33 students have graduated from college. Among the graduates, 15/26 (57.7%) have entered graduate school, 2/26 (7.7%) are applying to graduate school, 4/26 (15.4%) has entered professional school, and 4/26 (15.4%) are working in science-related professions. Seven not yet graduated students stated that they will either apply for graduate or professional school. In summary, this REU program has trained 33 undergraduate students for research experiences in molecular biotechnology and genomics and has created long lasting impact on students’ career development. As stated by students in the assessment, "This REU program has educated me about career options that I had not thought of before this summer" and "This experience has further motivated me to pursue a career in science."
