REU Site: ASL-English Bilingual Summer School in Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience

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This project is funded from the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program in the SBE Directorate. As such, it has both scientific and societal benefits, and it integrates research and education. The Bilingual ASL-English Summer School in Cognitive and Educational Neuroscience is a six-week intensive interdisciplinary research training program. Undergraduate trainees will receive hands-on training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging from experts in the field of educational neuroscience. This interdisciplinary REU Site will promote the progress of science by providing high-end training and research experience in several neuroimaging techniques for investigating the mind and brain, all within a fully accessible bilingual ASL-English environment. This Summer School at Gallaudet University is uniquely positioned to support diversity in research and science by providing training to Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing students who are typically underrepresented in STEM fields due to systematic language barriers. The school will be tailored for students who are at an early stage in their educational training to maximize the benefit for their future academic paths. This proposal has the unique potential to shape students’ academic choices, promote success in STEM, and ensure success for tomorrow’s generation of diverse researchers and leaders in science. The goal of the Summer School is to provide students with critical early-stage research experiences that will shape their academic and career decisions. Providing unique and supportive training in cognitive neuroscience will increase trainees’ competitiveness in securing more research experience at their home institution, increase their likelihood of selecting STEM-related courses, and foster a peer and mentor network essential for retention in academia and research. Trainees will gain knowledge and training in state-of-the-art neuroimaging techniques, investigate groundbreaking research questions, experience day-to-day progress in a research lab, explore research ethics, and participate in career-building activities. Through several multi-day workshops, students will receive hands-on training in four neuroimaging techniques: fNIRS, fMRI, EEG, and psychophysiology. Activities will range from learning the practical aspects of data collection to the basic skills needed for data analyses. Students will be guided in processing fMRI, fNIRS, and EEG datasets. Importantly, along with each workshop, students will be guided through ethical reflections related to conducting research in neuroscience with historically excluded populations, such as Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing participants. Beyond the workshops, students will further hone their skills through hands-on research experience in one of the cognitive neuroscience labs in the Ph.D. in Educational Neuroscience (PEN) Program by contributing to ongoing research activities. Their work will culminate in an end-of-school scientific presentation. To ensure continued success in academia, students will receive individualized mentoring from a PI and a peer graduate student during and beyond the summer school. Finally, thanks to the Summer School, students will become part of a larger network of researchers, all members of the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2), an NSF Science of Learning Center, providing an enduring network of peers within a fully accessible ASL-English bilingual environment.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.