REU Site: Understanding biological responses to global change in a field station community

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This REU Site award to Michigan State University’s Kellogg Biological Station (KBS), located in Hickory Corners, MI, will support the training of 10 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2022-2024. 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 learn how research is conducted, professional development and leadership skills, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences. Assessment of the program will be done thru the online SALG URSSA tool. Students will be tracked after the program in order to determine their career paths. REU students at KBS will conduct research to understand how organisms and ecosystems respond to global changes, in a time when this knowledge is more essential than ever. In a close knit community of researchers and other STEM professionals at a beautiful field station on Gull Lake, REU students will benefit from regular interactions with scholars and summer program participants, participation in professional development workshops, and leadership, inclusion, and research ethics trainings. They will also practice communicating their science to a wide variety of audiences and participate in an end-of-summer research symposium. Applications for summer sessions are reviewed by the Academic Programs Coordinator and primary mentors on a rolling basis between January and March. Mentors come from departments of Integrative Biology, Plant Biology, Fisheries and Wildlife, and Plant, Soil, and Microbial Sciences. Research projects range from examining how different agricultural practices change greenhouse gases emitted from soil, to long-term population dynamics of painted turtles under a warming climate. Students leave with an understanding of how science is conducted, and how it informs pressing issues like those we face in the Anthropocene. More information is available by visiting: www.kbs.msu.edu/education/undergraduate-program/research-experiences-for-undergraduates-reu/ or by contacting the PI (Dr. Sarah Evans, evanssa6@msu.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Fred Janzen at janzenf1@msu.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.