REU Site: Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Tropical Biology at the La Selva Biological Station, Costa Rica

该REU站点奖授予位于北卡罗来纳州达勒姆的热带研究组织，将在2015-2017年夏季为10名学生提供为期9周的培训。这个项目让学生接触到在哥斯达黎加低地潮湿热带森林的拉塞尔瓦研究站进行的广泛的研究。作为该计划的一部分，学生们将在活跃的研究人员的指导下从事与热带生态学和进化生物学相关的项目。研究领域包括森林再生、动物减少、土地利用变化和生物走廊。此外，学生们还参加了一系列关于伦理、科学传播、R语言统计和热带生物学的讲习班。该计划的核心目标是让学生在研究导师的指导下进行独立研究。学生们从头到尾设计自己的研究项目，并在夏季结束时开发、实施和展示他们的研究结果。预计将有30名学生，他们来自科学界和非国际扶轮研究机构中代表性不足的群体，将在这个计划中接受训练。学生们从头到尾设计自己的研究项目，并在夏季结束时开发、实施和展示他们的研究结果。该项目的第二个目标是让学生发表他们的研究成果，并在国内和国际会议上展示他们的发现。项目评估是通过项目前后的调查和项目范围内的评估来记录的。此外，由生物基础设施司（生物科学理事会）资助的所有REU项目使用的基于网络的通用评估工具将用于确定培训计划的有效性。学生将在项目结束后被跟踪，并且必须回复通过NSF报告系统发送的自动电子邮件。欲了解更多信息，请访问OTS网站www.tropicalstudies.org或与PI （Elizabeth C. Losos博士联系elosos@duke.edu）联系。

This REU Site award to the Organization for Tropical Studies, located in Durham, NC, will support the training of 10 students for nine weeks during the summers of 2015-2017. This program exposes students to the wide array of research taking place at the La Selva Research Station in a lowland wet tropical forest of Costa Rica. As part of the program, students will work under the mentorship of active researchers on projects related to tropical ecology and evolutionary biology. Research areas include forest regeneration, faunal declines, land use changes, and biological corridors. In addition, students participate in a series of workshops on ethics, science communication, statistics in R, and tropical biology. The core objective of the program is for students to conduct independent research under the guidance of a research mentor. Students design their own research project from beginning to end and develop, conduct, and present their findings at the end of the summer. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, from groups underrepresented in the sciences and non-RI research institutions will be trained in this program. Students design their own research projects from beginning to end and develop, conduct, and present their findings at the end of the summer. A second objective of the program is for the students to publish their research results and present their findings at national and international meetings. Program assessments are documented by pre- and post-program surveys and a program-wide evaluation. In addition, a common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) will be used to determine the effectiveness of the training program. Students will be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting the OTS website at www.tropicalstudies.org or by contacting the PI (Dr. Elizabeth C. Losos at elosos@duke.edu).