The 2012-2014 REU site at Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences provided talented U.S. undergraduate students the opportunity to work on challenging marine science problems in an active research lab under the mentorship of a senior research scientist. The program is designed to give students hands-on experience with a current marine science problem, help them to develop teamwork and presentation skills, and to encourage them to pursue careers in STEM careers or in fields that benefit from biological and analytic skills they learn over the summer. The program is unique in that the REU students are truly integrated into the laboratory’s community and work life so that students leave at the end of the summer with a clear understanding of what it takes to be a research scientist and why that work is important. 

 The REU program lasts for 10 weeks during the summer. Each student is assigned to a laboratory to work on a specific ocean research project.  Topics range from ocean optics, ocean chemistry, gas/sea exchange, microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry/physiology of marine phytoplankton, and invertebrate biology/ecology/physiology. Each lab includes a faculty mentor, postdocs, technicians, and other interns.  REU students work on a tractable research project that they help to develop.  Students interact on a daily basis with their faculty mentors, lab mates, and other laboratory interns, learning how to work collaboratively and share research ideas and results. Over the course of the summer, students participate in several workshops (statistics, concept mapping, etc.), attend seminars presented by invited speakers, and participate in public outreach activities. Every 14 days the students meet as a group to discuss new techniques that they have learned, current problems in their research, and they practice giving research presentations to each other and to faculty mentors.  At the end of the summer session, all summer interns (20+) create a poster and present a 15-minute talk about their research.  Each year, we select and fund between 2-8 students, who we take to a professional meeting (usually ASLO/CUR) where they present their work, attend seminars conducted by leading researchers in the field, and we introduce the students to our network of scientists.  From 2012-2014, 22 students have presented their work at a major conference and seven students have published articles as first author or as a coauthor in a larger study. 

 In 2012-2014 we received ~660 applications for the 28 available positions.  During this period, 33.4% of our accepted students were underrepresented minorities.  An average of 28% were first-generation college students and 21% were from community colleges.  Consistent with the demographics of our applicant pool, the ratio of women to men applicants was ~3:1.  Selected participants attend both public and private colleges and universities of many different types and from across the country.

 We maintain a surprising amount of contact with past students by email, Skype and seeing them at professional meetings. In 2014, our three-year external audit received 100% student response rate, a testament to our commitment to track students and their willingness to respond. We think that this response demonstrates that students take away a positive experience from our REU program. This is further demonstrated by the responses to our questionnaire.  Remarkably, all former REU participants are majoring in or have majored in STEM fields, about 2/3 of the respondents are, or expect to be, working in the Eastern seaboard of the United States, and 13 who have completed their BA degrees have either gone on to graduate school in STEM fields or are currently working in STEM-related fields.

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