Award: OCE-1455851

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates program, REU: Ocean Observing Technology for Emerging Ocean Scientists, has provided a diverse group of undergraduate students the opportunity to learn about the tools and technologies used to make observations of the ocean. Through both laboratory and ocean-going research experiences, students have had training in developing research hypotheses, data analysis and communicating their results. Objective 1: Provide an interdisciplinary research experience to challenge and engage students Faculty mentors from the Department of Oceanography and the Geochemical and Environmental Research Group at Texas A&M University guided students in conducting their independent research projects. As a group, the students participated in a research cruise to map oxygen concentrations to identify regions of hypoxia ("dead zones") in the Gulf of Mexico. Objective 2: Provide strategies for students to develop effective science communication skills. The ability to write clearly and concisely is essential in all scientific endeavors. Workshops on how to use library resources (Web of Science and other search tools), how to develop hypotheses, how to write a proposal and examples for the proposals were provided for the students. In addition, workshops on "How to prepare and present a poster" and "How to give a scientific presentation" were also given to help students prepare for communicating their results. Advice on career development was also provided in weekly seminars (e.g., "How to write a CV," "How to apply to graduate school"). Another very successful activity was the series of informal seminars given by faculty members that detailed their career journey. The ability to speak confidently in front of an audience is another valuable skill. Most Friday mornings of the program, students met with mentors to present an update on their research. Despite their initial fears, the students showed remarkable progress each week. Feedback the students received from the faculty and their peers definitely helped to improve their presentations. At the end of the summer all students demonstrated their communication skills with a final written report or poster presentation [delivered at a campus-wide REU poster session] and an oral seminar presentation at the REU Student Research Symposium. An independent panel of faculty and research staff judged the presentations and awarded the "Best Presentation," which was a travel stipend award to allow the student to attend a national oceanography conference. Significant results from this project include: 1. Overall, 60% of the participants were rising freshman, sophomores or juniors so the program bjective of targeting younger students to encourage continuation in STEM majors was met. 2. The female:male gender ratio of participants was ~ 60:40. 3. The goal to include at least 30 % of the students from underrepresented groups was met and was exceeded (37%) for the 3 years overall (63% Caucasian, 17% Hispanic, 7% Asian, 7% Native American, 3% African American, 3% NA). 4. The research cruise on the R/V Pelican was a key outcome. All students stated this was an incredibly valuable experience and was the highlight of the program. They all were trained on oxygen titration measurements and contributed to mapping hypoxia on the Texas shelf. 5. Each year, three or four of that summer's ten REU students attended the Ocean Sciences or Aquatic Sciences conference to give oral or poster presentations. Several students also participated in additional undergraduate research conferences. 6. Most of the REU students stated in their post-REU surveys that this experience helped them decide that graduate was something they definitely were planning to pursue and that having the opportunity to conduct "real" research was extremely beneficial. 7. The most effective professional training was the weekly seminar presentations. With feedback from mentors and their peers, the students' presentations all demonstrated marked improvement over the summer and culminated in excellent Symposium presentations. These activities all promoted scientific communication skills in both written and oral formats and have met the goals of the program to strengthen undergraduate STEM education and to encourage retention of students in STEM majors, in particular students from underrepresented groups in oceanography. This project has provided training and professional development opportunities for 30 undergraduate students and leadership training for three graduate students and three undergraduate students from Texas A&M. Results have been disseminated during local symposia at the end of each summer program, at national conferences, and on the REU website (http://ocean.tamu.edu/academics/reu/alumni ). Cruise hydrographic data are deposited in the Biological and Chemical Oceanography Data Management Office as project "REU Site: Ocean Observing for Emerging Ocean Scientists" [REU-OTO]: https://www.bco-dmo.org/dataset/753882. Last Modified: 05/13/2020 Submitted by: Lisa Campbell