This award provides funds to the Department of Biology at Wake Forest University to continue a successful Research Experiences for Undergraduates SITE. Undergraduate students, with the primary emphasis on women and minorities, will be given the opportunity of a 10 week research experience (Summer Undergraduate Research Experience) with faculty members in the Department . The research interests of the students will be matched with those of participating faculty. In conjunction with the research experience, students will be exposed to a range of other activities, including two, overnight field trips and a weekly seminar program given by departmental faculty members. Special time will be set aside for instruction in elementary biostatistics, experimental design, slide preparation, etc. The summer's research activities will culminate with an afternoon-long colloquium, at which time the students will present the results of their work to faculty and other summer participants. Students will be quartered in one of the University's residential houses in order to facilitate maximum student-student interaction. During the final days of the summer program, the students will be joined by their faculty Mentors from their home institutions. In this way, it is hoped that the students can better share their research experiences with faculty with whom they may be spending the remainder of their undergraduate career. In this way they may also be able to sustain their research momentum and perhaps entice them into a graduate program on completion of their baccalaureate degrees.
