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Program NewsEducation
The Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program is one of the main education programs supported by the Division of Ocean Sciences. REU sites are located at institutions that agree to host a small group of undergraduate students during a short-term internship period (typically 8-10 weeks in the summer). The students are assigned mentors who help them develop an independent research project. At the end of the programs, the students prepare written and oral presentations on their work. OCE will provide funding for a total of twenty-two REU sites during 2001. A list of the 2001 REU sites is available on our webpage at https://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu/reuoce.htm. Two years ago, Drs. Russell Cuhel and Carmen Aguilar (U.Wisconsin, Milwaukee) proposed that a subset of the REU students be supported to present their work at a major oceanographic meeting. They arranged for a group of fourteen REU students to attend the 2000 ASLO meeting in San Antonio, Texas, and the 2001 ASLO meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico. During the meeting, the students presented results of their REU research in a special poster session, and faculty mentors helped the students navigate meeting logistics and introduced them to scientists in their fields. The poster sessions attracted many posters from students who were not in the REU programs and attracted the attention of faculty, both for the work presented and as a good place to recruit graduate students. The program is so successful that we have recently provided funding for another three years. The REU program run by Cuhel and Aguilar parallels a program run by Dr. Ben Cuker, (Hampton University) that encourages minority students to attend ASLO meetings and helps prepare them for graduate school. The program, formed by ASLO in 1989, is known as the Committee on Under-Represented Minorities in Limnology and Oceanography (CURMLO). These students are also recruited nationwide, but participation is not restricted to NSF-supported REU students. The students present results of research they have conducted; they are paired with mentors; and they attend presentations that help explain the graduate school process. This year at the ASLO meeting the REU students and CURMLO students took a field trip to visit a bird sanctuary south of Albuquerque. Be sure to look for both of these student sessions at upcoming winter ASLO meetings! Lisa Rom (lrom@nsf.gov) |
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