Toward Diversity: A Metagenomics Workshop for Undergraduate Cohorts

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Project Abstract In the summer months of 2010 to 2014 we will hold multiple week-long workshops modeled on a successful pilot and focused on providing cohorts of underrepresented students with intensive research experiences. Students from the University of Puerto Rico, historically black colleges and universities, tribal colleges, and the Midwest Alliance1 for Students with Disabilities in STEM (Midwest) program will learn laboratory skills, engage in problem-solving and scientific thinking and receive mentoring from researchers. We predict that the students will gain an appreciation of and enthusiasm for scientific research and begin to identify as researchers. We hope this workshop will enhance recruitment of the students to graduate school. The students will receive opportunities for shared research experiences in a world-renowned metagenomics laboratory to learn both theoretical knowledge and technical skills applicable to careers in biomedical research. The proposed workshop will combine challenging research problems with a supportive environment and dedicated mentors. The course will focus on metagenomics, providing students with the opportunity to learn cutting-edge science and the technology driving the Human Microbiome Project (http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/hmp/) and many other areas of biomedical research. Moreover, when they complete the workshop, some will return to their undergraduate institutions where, under the direction of an advisor collaborating with the PI at UW, they will continue the research initiated at UW-Madison. The students, staff, and faculty at both institutions will remain in contact and share research results. This collaboration will enhance the science and provide students with culturally similar and dissimilar mentors. Students in the Midwest program who attend UW-Madison will be placed in research laboratories.