REU Site: Research Experience in Molecular Biotechnology and Genomics

让本科生对科学保持兴趣的最好方法之一就是让他们参与实际的实验室研究。成为一个活跃的研究小组的工作成员的机会为许多学生继续进入科学研究生院提供了动力。爱荷华州立大学的NSF REU项目侧重于为爱荷华州立大学的一个活跃的研究小组提供密集的研究经验。这些研究小组致力于生物技术和动植物基因组学。了解到这些类型的研究机会是为大型研究型大学的本科生提供的，这个项目将重点放在那些在自己的大学没有同样研究机会的学生身上。具体来说，这些学校服务于少数民族机构（特别是1890年的土地赠款学校）和中西部的小型文理学院。完成二年级或三年级学业的优秀学生将在爱荷华州立大学校园内度过10周，并提供食宿和津贴。这些学生将加入在实验室研究生物技术和基因组学问题的大学研究团队。学生们还每周聚在一起吃午餐，讨论伦理、多样性、申请研究生院、书面和口头科学报告，以及生物学研究的前沿。学生们为普通读者和科学读者练习写作，在项目网页上发表他们的研究成果，并在一个小型研讨会上向其他学生、导师和同事展示他们的作品。

One of the best ways to keep undergraduate students excited about science is to involve them in actual laboratory research. The opportunity to become a working member of an active research group provides the impetus for many students to continue into graduate school in science. The NSF REU program at Iowa State University focuses on providing an intensive research experience with an active research group at Iowa State. The research groups work on biotechnology and genomics of plants and animals. Understanding that these types of research opportunities are available for undergraduate students at large research universities, this program focuses its efforts on students that do not have the same research opportunity at their home colleges. Specifically these are schools that serve minority institutions (particularly the 1890 Land Grant Schools) and small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest. Outstanding students that have finished their sophomore or junior years will spend ten weeks on the Iowa State University campus where room and board and a stipend are supplied. The students will join university research teams that are working in laboratories on problems in biotechnology and genomics. The students also meet together weekly for lunch and discussions on ethics, diversity, applying to graduate schools, written and oral scientific presentations, and frontiers of biological research. The students practice writing for general and scientific audiences, publish their research on the program web page, and present their work at a mini-symposium for the other students, mentors, and colleagues.