REU Site: Intensive mentored Research Experiences for Undergraduates in psychology and neuroscience at an urban public college

该项目由本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划支持，该计划是nsf范围内的计划，尽管每个理事会管理自己的REU站点竞赛。本项目支持大学生积极参与科研，引导大学生从事科学研究，鼓励大学生继续投身国家的科学研究和发展事业。REU项目让学生以有意义的方式参与正在进行的研究项目或专门为此目的设计的研究项目。REU计划是NSF发展多样化、具有国际竞争力和全球参与的科学和工程劳动力的目标的主要贡献者。社会，行为和经济（SBE）科学理事会授予纽约城市大学（CUNY）布鲁克林学院（BC）这个REU站点赠款；它是在这个位置正在进行的REU站点的更新。该项目的目标是让不同的学生沉浸在心理学和神经科学的创新研究中。REU计划旨在促进科学发现，同时促进指导、学习和专业发展，方法是：(1)增加来自代表性不足群体（主要是女性、少数民族、第一代大学生）的学生参与神经科学研究；(2)引导学生通过科学过程，从研究问题的产生到结果的交流；(3)让学生沉浸在强调实验室工作的相关性和应用价值的教学中；(4)提高学生在研究生院和专业岗位上的竞争力；(5)提升地方高中教师的研究能力，对学生产生下游正向学习效应。REU计划还使教师能够监督有才华的人，否则他们可能会错过实验室指导和专业发展经验，并有助于培养和提升下一代心理学家和神经科学家。这个REU项目的核心（科学）部分是一个学期的实验室沉浸，在心理学系教师导师的监督下，这将导致一个完整的研究项目。REU学生接触到各种行为，神经科学和计算方法来执行他们的项目。强调高质量的研究和心理学理论与神经科学数据的设计、执行和解释的整合。每年有10名学生被挑选出来参加受指导的研究项目，特别是在纽约大都会地区的少数民族服务、公立两年制和四年制大学的本科生。学生每周参加教学：神经科学研讨会，双重关注神经科学原理/研究方法和专业问题；一个期刊俱乐部，通过学习选择、阅读和批判性地分析原始研究论文，使学生熟悉现代神经科学的科学文献；统计方法研讨会强调数据分析、统计推理和在学术背景下展示研究成果。学生们还要接受强化的神经伦理学训练。作为一个顶点体验，学生们在卑诗省科学研究日展示一张海报，在那里他们根据自己的工作质量和交流发现的能力竞争奖项。此外，该项目还有教师研究经验（RET）部分，为当地高中教师提供研究方法的课程、实验室指导经验和专业发展机会，以提高他们的神经科学素养，提高当地高中的科学教育水平。

This project is supported under the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program, which is an NSF-wide program although each Directorate administers its own REU Site competition. This program supports active research participation by undergraduate students in an effort to introduce them to scientific research so as to encourage their continued engagement in the nation's scientific research and development enterprise. REU projects involve students in meaningful ways in ongoing research programs or in research projects designed especially for the purpose. The REU program is a major contributor to the NSF's goal of developing a diverse, internationally competitive, and globally-engaged science and engineering workforce. The Social, Behavioral and Economic (SBE) sciences Directorate awarded this REU Site grant to the Brooklyn College (BC) in the City University of New York (CUNY); it is a renewal of an ongoing REU Site at this location. The objective of the project is to immerse diverse students in innovative research in psychology and neuroscience. The REU Program aims to advance scientific discovery for the scientific and broader communities while promoting mentoring, learning, and professional development by: (1) increasing participation of students from underrepresented groups (primarily women, racial minorities, first-generation college students) in neuroscience research; (2) guiding students through the scientific process, from generation of research questions to communication of results; (3) immersing students in didactics that highlight the relevance and applied value of their laboratory work; (4) enhancing students' competitiveness for graduate school and professional positions; and (5) boosting the research competence of local high school teachers with downstream positive learning effects for their students. This REU Program also enables faculty members to supervise talented individuals who might otherwise miss out on mentored laboratory and professional development experiences, and contributes to the training and advancement of the next generation of psychologists and neuroscientists. The central (scientific) component of this REU Program is a semester-long laboratory immersion, under the supervision of Psychology Department faculty mentors, which results in a completed research project. REU students are exposed to a variety of behavioral, neuroscientific, and computational methods to execute their projects. High quality research and the integration of psychological theory with the design, execution, and interpretation of neuroscientific data are emphasized. Ten students are selected annually for mentored research projects, especially undergraduates at ethnic-minority serving, public two-year and four-year institutions in the New York metropolitan area. Students attend weekly didactics: a neuroscience seminar that dually focuses on neuroscience principles/research methods and professional issues; a journal club that familiarizes students with scientific literature in modern neuroscience through learning to select, read, and critically analyze original research papers; and a statistical methods seminar that emphasizes data analysis, statistical reasoning, and presenting research findings in academic contexts. Students also undergo intensive neuroethics training. As a capstone experience, students present a poster at the BC Science Research Day, where they compete for awards based on the quality of their work and ability to communicate their findings. In addition, the project has a RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) component, which provides local high school teachers with coursework in research methods, mentored laboratory experience, and professional development opportunities to enhance their neuroscience literacy and raise the level of science education in local high schools.