This award is to support the renewal of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) site program at the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho. The objectives for the students participating in this REU site are: 1) Introduction to the excitement of physics research through active participation in research, 2) Training in the scientific method and the ethical dimensions of scientific research, 3) Development of team-building skills, 4) Scientific career awareness development, and 5) Diversity awareness development by recruitment of students from traditionally underrepresented groups. The Idaho physics faculty will design research projects that are challenging yet viable. Both theoretical and experimental projects will be made available. The students will be encouraged to work in small groups to foster teamwork skills. Weekly meetings will be held to allow the students to interact and to keep each other posted on their progress. The REU students will interact with Idaho faculty, research staff personnel, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students and undergraduates. Supplementary activities will include weekly lunch together with faculty and weekend activities that revolve around the tremendous outdoor experiences available in Idaho. The program will conclude with REU student research presentations. The site is co-funded by the Department of Defense in partnership with the NSF REU program.
During each of the summers of 2011, 2012, 2013, the University of Idaho Department of Physics hosted six undergraduate researchers. For each year’s cohort, variety in the students’ experiences was sought to maximize their exposure to a variety of experiences. The students included one female student each year and one student from a traditionally underrepresented group. They were from all sizes and types of colleges and universities; large public and private institutions to small public and private schools, including one student from a community college. The goals of the University of Idaho Physics REU program were to provide quality and substantive research experiences to undergraduate students, encourage the students’ identification as fellow scientists, and increase their likelihood of pursuing a career in a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics) field. These students spent nine weeks working closely with a faculty mentor on a research project closely related to the scholarship of the mentor. The eight faculty members who acted as mentors performed scholarship in the following areas: computational bio-physics, cratering mechanisms on other planets, band-gap engineering of wide band-gap oxide semiconductors, controlled carrier doping of nanowires, synthesis and characterization of magnetic nanoparticles and nanosprings, and controlled de-alloying to create nano-porous membranes. Community building among the REU students and the other students and faculty of the department was a major component of the program. The students lived in a dorm on campus where they would share their experiences and their research with each other and the students participating in another REU program on campus (in biology). Weekly lunches provided opportunities for the students to get to know the faculty of the department in a more informal atmosphere and learn more about the life and career of scientists. One of the weekly lunches provided the opportunity to discuss the issue of scientific ethics in research. During the course of the summer, five excursions were planned for the benefit of the students. These provided further opportunities for the students to bond with two of the excursions having a scientific theme that included the geological and natural history of the Inland Pacific Northwest. At the end of the summer, each student wrote up a description of the work they had performed over the summer; their research goals, results and skills learned. The skills the students learned included how to operate complex research tools (e.g. vacuum pumps, test and measurement equipment, data acquisition tools), how to design experiments, how to keep a laboratory notebook and how to perform literature searches. The students also had to give a ten-minute oral presentation modeled on those given at the American Physical Society March Meeting. Exit surveys of the students revealed that all of the students after having participated in the University of Idaho Physics REU program were either newly convinced that pursing a STEM career and further STEM studies was best for them or that their experience further reinforced their decision to pursue a career in a STEM field.
