REU Site: Intensive Mentored Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) in Psychology and Neuroscience at an Urban Public College

该项目由SBE理事会的本科生研究经验（REU）站点计划资助。它具有科学和社会效益，并将研究和教育相结合。纽约城市大学REU项目的布鲁克林学院（BC）旨在通过以下方式促进科学和更广泛社区的发现，同时促进指导、学习和专业发展：(1)让来自弱势群体（主要是女性、少数族裔、第一代大学生）的学生参与心理学和神经科学的创新研究；(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)让学生参与强调实验室工作的相关性和应用价值的教学；(4)提高学生在研究生院和专业岗位上的竞争力；(5)提升地方初高中教师的研究能力，对学生产生下游正向学习效应。该REU项目还使教职员工能够监督那些可能错过实验室指导和专业发展机会的人才，并有助于培养和提升下一代科学家。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，生物学和化学系教师导师的监督下，这将导致一个完整的研究项目。我们强调产生高质量的研究，并将心理学和神经科学理论与数据的设计，执行和解释相结合。我们每年选择10名学生进行指导研究项目，特别是来自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。学生还参加每周的教学：一个研讨会，双重侧重于心理学和神经科学原理/研究方法和专业问题/职业发展；一个期刊俱乐部，通过学习选择、阅读、批判性分析和展示原始研究论文的摘要，使学生熟悉科学文献；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。鉴于在研究中坚持伦理规范的重要性，我们的学生也接受了密集的科学伦理训练。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。我们的许多学生与他们的导师合作，在同行评审的期刊上发表他们的研究结果。此外，本计划亦设有教师研究经验（RET）部分，为本地初中及高中教师提供研究方法课程、实验室经验指导及专业发展机会，以提升他们的研究能力及提高本地初中及高中的科学教育水平。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. It has both scientific and societal benefits, and integrates research and education. The Brooklyn College (BC) of the City University of New York REU program aims to advance discovery for the scientific and broader communities while promoting mentoring, learning, and professional development by: (1) immersing students from underrepresented groups (primarily women, racial minorities, first-generation college students) in innovative research in psychology and neuroscience; (2) guiding students through the scientific process, from generation of research questions to communication of results; (3) engaging 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 middle and 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 opportunities, and contributes to the training and advancement of the next generation of scientists. The central (scientific) component of this REU program is a semester-long laboratory immersion, under the supervision of Psychology, Biology, and Chemistry Department faculty mentors, which results in a completed research project. We emphasize the generation of high quality research and integration of psychological and neuroscientific theory with the design, execution, and interpretation of data. We select ten students annually for mentored research projects, especially undergraduates from ethnic-minority serving, public two-year and four-year institutions in the New York metropolitan area. Students also attend weekly didactics: a seminar that dually focuses on psychology and neuroscience principles/research methods and professional issues/career development; a journal club that familiarizes students with scientific literature through learning to select, read, critically analyze, and present summaries of original research papers; and a statistical methods seminar that emphasizes data analysis, statistical reasoning, and presentation of research findings in academic contexts. Given the importance of adhering to ethical norms in research, our students also undergo an intensive scientific ethics 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. Many of our students work with their mentors to publish their results in peer-reviewed journals. In addition, the project has a RET (Research Experiences for Teachers) component, which provides local middle and high school teachers with coursework in research methods, mentored laboratory experience, and professional development opportunities to enhance their research competencies and raise the level of science education in local middle schools and high schools.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.