Virtual Workshops for GEO REU Students and PIs During COVID-19

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In response to the COVID-19 national emergency, many Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site programs have cancelled their programs for the summer 2020 due to a lack of housing and travel restrictions. Some REU sites that are funded by the Division of Ocean Sciences have created virtual internships for students who will be able to access and analyze data remotely. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) will organize an on-line professional development workshop that is designed to support about sixty undergraduates and faculty mentors who are participating in virtual REU internships during the summer 2020. This professional development workshop series will ensure that students who are participating in the virtual internships have the professional development opportunities that are normally part of an in-person REU program.This project will support a workshop series that will focus on two topics. 1. Student Professional Development: providing a series of weekly professional development seminars for students participating in the virtual REUs. These seminars will serve the dual purpose of developing a sense of cohort amongst students, and 2. Faculty Support and Materials: supporting faculty mentors in preparing to run a virtual REU, providing faculty with seminars on facilitating professional development topics, and providing some webinar recordings and materials for guided student activities. The project will also be a model for future virtual internship programs.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.