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

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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.