REU Site: Animal Behavior in Context

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This REU Site award to Indiana University, located in Bloomington, IN, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2021 - 2023. It is anticipated that a total of 30 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities or from an under-represented group, will be trained in the program. Students will conduct research on how context, a concept that includes external events, internal state, and past experience, influences behavioral decision-making. This theme unites perspectives and methods from biology, psychology, ecology, anthropology, and cognitive science. Projects will be conducted in home labs that may use a range of methodological approaches including genomics, neuroscience, microbiomics, endocrinology, and modern field work to study the mechanistic bases of context. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. Assessment of the program will be done through the online SALG URSSA tool. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths.The REU Site is housed at the Center for the Integrative Study of Animal Behavior. Faculty members in the departments of Biology, Psychological and Brain Sciences, and Anthropology will serve as mentors. The scientific theme of context as behaviorally informative will lead to new insight into the capabilities of animals for behavioral plasticity and lends itself to groundbreaking research in the mechanisms of behavior. For example, several projects will focus on the microbiomic, genomic, hormonal, or neural mechanisms that regulate aggressive behaviors in mice, hamsters, electric fish, or tree swallows. In addition to research, students will be trained in the ethical conduct of research, scientific writing, and research presentation. Students will be prepared for applying to graduate school. Matches with specific projects will be based on mutual interests between students and home labs. Student achievements will be assessed via the SALG URSSA tool, by formative and summative assessments in conjunction with the School of Education, and via long-term individual tracking. More information about the program is available by visiting https://animalbehavior.indiana.edu/research/reu/index.html , or contacting the PI (Dr. Laura Hurley: lhurley@indiana.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Cara Wellman: wellmanc@indiana.edu).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.