BUILDING UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH AND SCIENCE COMMUNICATION SKILLS THROUGH BENEFICIAL INSECTS PROTECTION RESEARCH AND EXTENSION EXPERIENCES

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: EXTENDED
• Funding Source: AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1018000
• Grant No.: 2019-67032-29073
• Project No.: NEBN-28-502
• Proposal No.: 2018-05858
• Program Code: A7401
• Project Start Date: Feb 15, 2019
• Project End Date: Feb 14, 2024
• Grant Year: 2019

Project Director
Golick, D.

Recipient Organization
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA
(N/A)
LINCOLN,NE 68583

Performing Department
Entomology

Non Technical Summary
The goal of our REEU program is: (1) teach and nurture interest in science by engaging up to 7 undergraduate students each year to analyze and address complex problems for 10 weeks during the summer, (2) to teach the students how to communicate science to scientists and the public through training and hands-on experiences, (3) foster skills in students for developing extension education materials including innovative uses of online apps, social media, and other technological tools to reach broad audiences, and (4) to significantly impact the career decisions of these students by providing academic research experiences and field trips to businesses and organization engaged in research and extension around beneficial insects.We will recruit 7 undergraduatestudents each year, for 4 years. Over 50% each year will be female and/or from underrepresented groups.Students will engage in research and extension opportunities focused on beneficial insects in agroecosystems (bees, butterflies, beetles), pest control (natural enemies), soil nutrient cycling (dung beetles, soil dwellers), and biological indicators (aquatic insects) of the quality of our environmental surroundings. To address emerging and complex agricultural issues we seek to develop a research education and extension experience program for undergraduates with a focus on building scientific knowledge, communication, and extension product development skills. With all complex issues, big data and the tools necessary to make sense of the interactions between elements of agroecosystems will be a theme in the REEU students' research and extension experiences.Faculty advisors will provide mentorship to students in a wide range of beneficial insect research and extension projects. The faculty bring strong records in one-on-one mentoring of undergraduate researchers and are adept at devising projects tailored to stimulate students' curiosity and expand REEU participants understanding of research and extension engagement. Faculty advisors have extensive experience teaching undergraduate courses, mentoring students in scientific research (a combined 103 undergraduate students), and in conducting extension programming. In addition, PIs have active research programs on undergraduate student science literacy.In addition to their strong history of involvement with undergraduate research, the senior personnel offer a level of diversity sufficient to attract a diverse student pool to the REEU program, collectively spanning four ethnicities. We believe with our four female faculty mentors, that we have a particularly strong ability to recruit women participants.Each participant will be placed in a research lab and assigned one or more graduate student mentors with whom (s)he will work and communicate on a daily basis. Students will conduct research under the supervision of a collaborating faculty mentor. Students will conduct research on a prepared/selected research or extension project with beneficial insects in the mentor's research area (see Table 2). For some projects, there will be a special focus on interacting and contributing their research to big data (FACT component). In addition to faculty mentorship around research or extension communication, students will receive training in working with and using 'big data' in research and extension communication from staff in UNL's Quantitative Life Science's Initiative. In addition to holding weekly lab group meetings, the faculty member will interact with the participant in an advising role several times throughout each week. At a minimum, the REEU participant will interact daily with graduate students. In addition to research and mentorship activities, the Primary REEU faculty mentors Golick and Brewer will meet with students Friday afternoons to share a photo that they took each week and present a brief talk on his/her project at each weekly REEU meeting. The goals of this activity is to develop speaking skills and disseminate results to students/faculty?

Animal Health Component

0%

Research Effort Categories

Basic

0%

Applied

70%

Developmental

30%

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
211	3110	3030	100%

Knowledge Area
211 - Insects, Mites, and Other Arthropods Affecting Plants;

Subject Of Investigation
3110 - Insects;

Field Of Science
3030 - Information and communication;

Keywords

beneficial insects

big data

extension

student development

Goals / Objectives
The goal of our REEU program is: (1) teach and nurture interest in science by engaging up to 7 undergraduate students each year to analyze and address complex problems for 10 weeks during the summer, (2) to teach the students how to communicate science to scientists and the public through training and hands-on experiences, (3) foster skills in students for developing extension education materials including innovative uses of online apps, social media, and other technological tools to reach broad audiences, and (4) to significantly impact the career decisions of these students by providing academic research experiences and field trips to businesses and organization engaged in research and extension around beneficial insects.

Project Methods
Recruitment, Selection, and Retention. The UNL Office of Graduate Studies (OGS) has developed an extensive infrastructure to recruit, manage, house, and pay students participating in 17 summer research programs at UNL.OGS has an aggressive strategy for recruiting qualified domestic undergraduate students for REU programs, with particular emphasis on students traditionally underrepresented in graduate education. The cornerstone of their strategy involves targeted, personalized e-mails to prospective students through Talisma recruitment software. Names of all domestic students interested in attending graduate school in all disciplines are purchased each year from the GRE Search Service. Prospective student names are also collected from conference attendance lists, the McNair Scholars program, website inquiries, and e-mails.UNL is represented annually at several conferences geared toward underrepresented students, including: the National Conference of the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science, the California Forum for Diversity in Graduate Education, the Joint Annual Conference for the National Societies of Black and Hispanic Physicists, and the Alliance for Graduate Education in Mississippi's Winter Symposium. Some conferences provide a comprehensive list of attendees, and all students receive follow-up through a sophisticated, personalized communication plan.Our faculty mentors will be asked to contribute to the recruitment plan by providing contact information for the following: former students who are now faculty members; collaborators at other institutions; colleagues at targeted schools (MSIs and those in the Midwest with limited research opportunities); and key conferences in their discipline. Faculty in these groups will receive personal letters announcing the REEU and follow-up phone calls inviting them to recommend students for the program. When possible, UNL faculty or advanced doctoral students will travel to targeted schools to give a research talk, highlight the REEU opportunities, and meet with any interested students. Previous participants in the REEU program will also be contacted each year and invited to nominate their peers to participate in the program. Additionally, UNL faculty and advanced doctoral students who attend conferences will network with other faculty in the beneficial insect and plant science fields and will invite talented undergraduate student presenters to apply.Participant Selection Procedure. The UNL SRP online application form requests the following information: name, school, major, GPA, earned credit hours, class, graduation date, date of birth, US citizenship, gender, ethnicity, faculty advisor preferences (research projects are summarized on the UNL REEU website). The selection committee (Golick and 3 Co-PIs) will pass the files through two selection procedures. The "first filter" separates the completed files based upon the following criteria: a GPA above 3.0, U.S. citizenship, and class standing at the sophomore and junior level plus seniors who will graduate in one year. The "second filter" involves reading and assessing each first filter file for (1) student intent to go to graduate school or professional school so that our program can influence their decision, (2) the student's personal statement about their future career interest, (3) their prior research experiences, (4) highest Biological Sciences or Entomology course completed. These factors will be used to rank applicant files. The ten faculty advisors then receive two of the highest ranked files from students who selected them as their top priority. Golick will then send an email offer to the faculty member's first choice and gives the applicant one week to respond, after which the second ranked candidate is sent an offer.Nature of student activities: Students will engage in research and extension opportunities focused on beneficial arthropods in agroecosystems (bees, butterflies, beetles), pest control (natural enemies), nutrient cycling (dung beetles, soil dwellers), and biological indicators (aquatic insects) of the quality of our environmental surroundings. Our faculty team has established research and extension programs on beneficial insects and agroecosystem communities. Beneficial arthropods are especially relevant to the NIFA emphasis on Food and Agriculture Cyberinformatics and Tools Initiate (FACT) Farm Bill Priority Areas as questions around beneficial insects in agroecosystems involve large data sets. WThe research portion of the REEU is designed to meet our first three objectives, particularly in helping REEU participants develop as independent researchers through systematic instruction in research skills while simultaneously engaging in research projects. Individual projects will be carefully designed by mentors to be immediately hands-on, include real and practical research and extension activities, and be achievable within the 10-week summer program. REEU participants will undertake individual research projects that have been well-prepared by the faculty mentors to permit immediate student immersion and are designed to fit into the larger context of the mentor's research program (see Table 2). The research projects will give students experience in contributing to a research plan, conducting experiments, critically analyzing data, and communicating results both in writing and orally. Research components such as hypothesis formulation and refinement, literature review, experimental design, analysis of results, and hypothesis feedback for recommendations of next steps and future work will be practiced in parallel with the main hands-on project. For those students conducting extension project, we will follow a very similar student development approach as with the research. Students will work around an extension issue using a blend of social science approaches including survey or interview methodology. Students will also work with faculty members and post-doc members to develop extension communication products (e.g. UNL CropWatch articles, presentations, interactive videos).The research portion of the REEU is designed to meet our first three objectives, particularly in helping REEU participants develop as independent researchers through systematic instruction in research skills while simultaneously engaging in research projects. Individual projects will be carefully designed by mentors to be immediately hands-on, include real and practical research and extension activities, and be achievable within the 10-week summer program. REEU participants will undertake individual research projects that have been well-prepared by the faculty mentors to permit immediate student immersion and are designed to fit into the larger context of the mentor's research program (see Table 2). The research projects will give students experience in contributing to a research plan, conducting experiments, critically analyzing data, and communicating results both in writing and orally. Research components such as hypothesis formulation and refinement, literature review, experimental design, analysis of results, and hypothesis feedback for recommendations of next steps and future work will be practiced in parallel with the main hands-on project. For those students conducting extension project, we will follow a very similar student development approach as with the research. Students will work around an extension issue using a blend of social science approaches including survey or interview methodology. Students will also work with faculty members and post-doc members to develop extension communication products (e.g. UNL CropWatch articles, presentations, interactive videos).

Progress 02/15/22 to 02/14/23

Outputs
Target Audience:This grant allows undergraduate students who qualify to receive training in research in Beneficial Insects. Our goal is for at least 4 of our participants on a annual basis to befemale and/or from underrepresented groups each year. We select for students interested in pursuing scientific careers in agriculural science-related field, who are do well academically, who have limited research experience, and/or are the first in their family to go to college. Accepted students into this 2022 SRP were paired with faculty mentors working on research. Seven students attended the program in 2022. 4of the 7 students identified aswomen, 2 male, and 1 self-identified as unspecified/non-binary. This year, 7 of 7 students identified as White with one also self-identifying also as Asian.For the 2022 REEU recruitment we markedly increased our recruiting strategy to reach out to individual high-needs schools including contacts at HBCUs and marking through national MANNRS. This effort led to an increase application submission from underrepresented scholars up from 11% to 17% of applications turned in from the previous year's submissions. We made offers to many URM applicants in 2022 butmost of our offers were turned down by these individuals due to high competition and as theyhad accepted offers from other institutions with earlier application and review deadlines.Students spent ten weeks working on research at UNL that promoted beneficial insects in agroecosystems including studying insect pollinators, crop pest predators, soil dwellers, and Soybean gall midge, andimpacts of enviromental pesticides at Mead, Nebraska's ALTeN planton beneficial insects. Changes/Problems: •Recruitment loss with "backouts" of students in 2022 due to high competitioneven withtargeted recruitment of students through personal contacts at HBCUs, student organizations, and faculty contacts. •Based on student feedback our fact component was reduced as a few of our key faculty left in this area - smaller component. We have reduced the amount (blanket Big Data training) for every REEU student in our program and made the training available only for those engaged in big data researchprojects. This did not affect the goals of the outcomes of our program. We did not change the program beyond the items suggested and still, for example, met our recruitment and target audience goals. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?We also took field tripsto Gjerfoff Prairie and were hosted and given a tour by the Prairie Plains Resource Institute https://www.prairieplains.org/ of their native grass and flower seeds processing facility •We went on a tour of the Omaha Zoo's invertebrate rearing and conservation facility. We received behind-the-scenes tour of their husbandry facilities for the endangered species Salt Creek Tiger beetles. UNL graduate studies also provide a comprehensive professional development series for all of the 150 REU and REEU students at UNL. Our students participated in approximately 30 hrs of additional PD on: • Orientation to UNL Campus and facilities • Diversity and Inclusion. Title IX • Authorship workshop • Financial literacy as a REU student, student, and graduate student • Research Cycle and Working with Mentors • Scientific writing • Networking in research and in finding a position • Mock Symposium - participating in reviewing talks and posters • Apply to school and personal statements workshop • Student panel on graduate school • Poster and paper development • GRE workshop Additionally, our REEU students met for two hours on Friday afternoons as a group to build extension and science communication skills development, entomology research skills development activities, poster critiques, and sharing experiences each week. All 7 student engaged in structured extension education delivery activities (e.g. teaching beneficial insect systems to elementary-aged learners, crop field days, and honey bee health workshops. Students were also invited to 10 social events including visits to the zoo, evening kayaking, local lake recreation visits hosted by UNL graduate studies for REU students How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?This year we reported and shared our results with colleagues at the joint USDA PI meeting in April. We also shared our results with other UNL REU and REEUs at UNL through PI group there. We will present project results at our national meeting in November 2023. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We will have 7 more REEU students attend this summer and reach our student number goals - proceed as in previous years (build on the successful aspects of the program. An outside consultant team, will coduct the 2023 evaluation and Final Evaluation of our program. Project results will be presented via oral presentationat the 2023 Entomology of America Meeting The Final Report will be turned at theend of the project.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Progress toward project aims/goals 1. We had 7 REEU students attend from 6 different schools outside of Nebraska. All 7 completed small research projects and all engaged in extension projects. 100% of 2023 students reported that they gained in their: -Ability to complete research independently -Confidence in my potential as a scholar -Confidence as a researcher 2. All participants engaged in Extension engagement program on insects and entomologywith a summer school program at a Lincoln, NEelementary school.2 students participated in the delivery of a master beekeeping/Great Plains beekeeping workshop on treating bees for disease. All studentsparticipated in science communication and poster development professional development. All presented their research at the University of Nebraskasummer research fair. 100% of 2023 students reported that they gained in their: -Skill in creating research and extension products worthy of publication or presentation 3.2 students developed draft pamphlets (example products)explaining their research to lay audiences.Students talked about the ways in which the REEU helped them with their professional development and future plans during the midpoint focus group. They talked about the exposure to multiple occupations through their experience in the lab. Some of the students discussed receiving helpful advice from their mentors about graduate school and their future career paths. During the endpoint focus group, students talked about feeling that the REEU was good preparation for graduate school in that it taught them accountability and was a good hands-on experience. . In both the pre and post-program surveys, students were specifically asked about their plans for graduate school. 4. 80% of students reported that the experience better helped them prepare for graduate school and a field in entomology or related agricultural sciences. Student reported, that the beneficial insects REEU, "helped [them] prepare for grad school very well" and that they have been able to narrow their career path to one of two very specific options. During the endpoint focus group, students agreed that the summer research program aided them in preparing for graduate studies and their future careers."

Publications

Progress 02/15/21 to 02/14/22

Outputs
Target Audience:This grant allows undergraduate students who qualify to receive trainingin research in Beneficial Insects.Our targets are for at least 4 of them to be female and/or from underrepresented groups each year. We will select for students interested in pursuing scientific careers, who are doing well academically, who have limited research experience, and/or are the first in their family to go to college.Accepted students into this 2021 SRP were paired with faculty mentors workingon research. Sevenstudents attended the program in 2021. 6 of the 7 students were women (86%). 1 identified as hispanic/lation, 2 identified as asian, 5 identified as white. 14% were underepresented minorities. Accepted students into this 2021 SRP were paired with faculty mentors working on research. Students spent ten weeks working on research at UNL that promoted beneficial insects in agroecosystems including studying insect pollinators, crop pest predators, soil dwellers, and related human conservation behaviors. Changes/Problems:We experienced nomajor problems and no problemswere reported to us by students through our discussion and inindependent evaluator's final report for 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students attended 10 2 hour hands-on/active workshops facilitated by experts on these topics;working with research mentors, authorship and Title IX, building your newtwork and brand as a researcher, graduate student panel (discussion), intercultural development (with inventory exercise), personal dimension training,fostering self efficacy in research and individual development plans, applying to graduate school, creating research and video presentations, and science communication and scientific writing. Students also attended 3 field trips one 6 hour trip to the Prairie Plains Research Institute - 600 acres restored prairie for discussion of beneficial insects and plant relationships in praries, Omaha Zoo Insect Rearing of insects and endangered SCTB, and Li-Cor Scientific Instruments headquarters - science industry careers Additionally our REEU students met with project Directorstwo hours on Friday afternoons as a group to go over extension and science communication skills development, entomology research skills development activities, poster critiques, and sharing experiences each week. Students were also invited to 6 social events including visits to the zoo, evening kayaking, local lake recreation visits hosted by UNL graduate studies for REU students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Our REEU data was presented to other undergraduate researchers as a part of our summer undergraduate research symposium - 89 students participated and viewed each others' presentations in 2021. 4 of our students participated in public extension and science literacy outreach activities across 5 events reaching approximately, 45 children and family members and 34 adult audience members. Additionally results of the program have been shared internally with our faculty, staff, and other REEU's at UNL to share our success and suggestions for improvements of REEU. We hope to publish the success of our REEU in 2023 and share with others considering providing a similar program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to increase our public science communication and extension activities and professional development through partnering with summer school program at a local elementary school. PI - Golick will facilitate teaching sessions over a two week period during the REEU with 40 elementary students. We will conduct precreated hands-on STEM activities with insects in coordination with the summerprogram director, a former NE Extension Assistant. Will will also ask students to create 1 science communication product either a video for social media distribution or an extension publication translating an aspect of their research product. For the other aspects of the program, we plan to continue with the general PD plan but will add two field trips to external sites including a research and extension center and Arbor Day Farms to view their public outreach education programming and facilities.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? 1) All students conducted research under the mentorship of both facutly mentors and graduate students. Student research project topics included (broadly), pollinator ecoystem health, honey bee health, monarch butterfly larval health and development (food meal), human dimensions of pollinator conservation misconceptions, beneficial insects in grassland ecoystems. Students attended 10 professional development workshops and 3 field trips to external sites. 2). Students received training in science communication and creating posters and presentations for both scientists and lay audiences. Students also received mentorship and guidance on creating a poster and poster presentation for a virtual undergraduate research summit with all of our institutions REU and REEUs. 4 of the 7 students praticipated in outreach events with the public including pollinator outreach and extension presentations. Events were in person one day events. Students also attending 3 workshops held by our Graduate Studies department and 1 by Beneficial Insect Leadsfocused on science communication including:Science Communication and Scientific writing, Creating a research poster and video, and evaluating science communication products and reaching lay audiences. 3). All 7 REEU students created asynchronus video presentations (3 minutes each) on their REEU poster topic for distribution through UNLs internal social media and video platforms. 4). Several aspects of impacting students careers were achieved through All students received hands on workshops on several topics related to persuing an agriculutural science degree including: Applying to and funding graduate educatoin, Working with research mentors, Authorship and Title IX, Building your newtwork and brand as a researcher, Graduate student panel (discussion) Our independent evaluators found in student surveys that there was frompre to post program an increase from: 3 to 6 students saying they would consider applying to graduate school, from 3 to 5 saying they plan to obatina a degree in a STEM field, 4 to 5 plan to get a PhD, 4 to 6 saying they would apply for grad school in entomology, 0 to 1 planning to attend our UNL for graduate school. During the midpoint focus group, students reported that the SRP was enabling them to gain analytical skills, conduct scientific research, think creatively, construct good questions, organize data collection, and input data in Excel. One student mentioned they were still unsure of future plans but that the summer research program had exposed them to many different career opportunities while another student expressed feeling "that [the program] helped [them] prepare for grad school very well" and that they had been able to narrow their career path to one of two very specific options. During the endpoint focus group, students agreed that the summer research program aided them in preparing for graduate studies and their future career. One articulated having a "great experience" with their mentor but the mentor did not have a traditional lab, so the student stated feeling they "missed out on traditional lab experience that other students got." Another student articulated "hoping to have more experience with quantitative data analysis but that just wasn't what [their] project ended up being on."

Publications

Progress 02/15/20 to 02/14/21

Outputs
Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems:Due to the pandemicwe did not conduct our REEU program in person and did not move our program virtually in 2020. Our Year 2 of the project will be reflecting in Reporting period Ending in Feb 14, 2022. We will resume project in Summer of 2021. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?During this reporting period (Summer of 2020) we did not conduct or REEU program due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Year 2 of the project will be reflecting in Reporting period Ending in Feb 14, 2022. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Nothing Reported What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? Nothing Reported

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? During this reporting period (Summer of 2020) we did not conduct or REEU program due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our Year 2 of the project will be reflecting in Reporting period Ending in Feb 14, 2022.

Publications

Progress 02/15/19 to 02/14/20

Outputs
Target Audience:We reached 5 undergraduate students from 5 acadmic institutions from Landgrant and non-Landgrant institutions. A total of 80 undergraduate students applied for the Beneficial Insects REEU Program (Table 1) for a total of five positions. Among the applicants, 45 (56%) were female and 32 (40%) were underrepresented minorities (URM). Meanwhile, four of the five students who accepted the offer from he program (80%), were female. Four of the five 2019 REEU participants were women.3 were minorities. All but one came from an institution with very limited research opportunties. All came from institutions outside of Nebraska, with only one from the Midwest. Changes/Problems: Nothing Reported What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All REEU students participated in 4 Big Data Analysis Software sessions wth UNL's Holland Computing Centerhttps://hcc.unl.edu/big-dataThese two our sessions covered accessing UNL's Data Center's Terminals and running R and Matlab. In addition, Holland Computing Center Staff conducted a custom session for our REEU group on biological and ecological research and interfacewith Big Data. We also took field trips to Li-Cor BioSciennces Headquartershttps://www.licor.com/and looked at their genetic and environmental research division and talked to their HR leads about applying to industry positions. We took a field trip to GjerfoffPrairie and were hosted and given a tour by the Prairie Plains Resource Institutehttps://www.prairieplains.org/of their native grass and flower seeds processing facility . We went on a tour of the Omaha Zoo's invertebrate rearing and conservation facility. We received a behinds the scenes tour on their husbandry facilities and endangered species Salt Creek Tiger beetles breeding facility. UNL graduate studies also provide a comprehensive professional development series for all of the 170 REU and REEU students at UNL. Our students participated in approximately 30 hrs of additional PD on: Orientation to UNL Campus and facilities Diversity and Inclusion Title IX Authorship workshop Financial literacy as a REU student, student, and graduate student Research Cycle and Working with Mentors Scientific writing Networking in research and in finding a position Mock Symposium - participating in reviewing talks and postrs Grad school and personal statements workshop Student panel on graduate school Poster and paper development GRE workshop Additionally our REEU students met for two hours on Friday afternoons as a group to go over extension and science communication skills development, entomology research skills development activities, poster critiques, and sharing experiences each week. Students were also invited to 10 social events including visits to the zoo, evening kayaking, local lake recreation visits hosted by UNL graduate studies for REU students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Yes, the results of the program have been shared internally with our faculty, staff, and other REEU's at UNL to share our success and suggestions for improvements of REEU. All students presented their research at a large research fair with about 200 other graduate and undergraduates also doing summer research experiences at the University of Nebraska. We hope to publish the success of our REEU in 2021 to share with others considering providing a similar program. Three of the 5 students in our 2019 REEU are working with their mentors on manuscripts for publication. This are still in progress and we will hopefully have something to share in the next reporting cycle. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to continue to follow nearly the same plan/format for the 2020 REEU as we did for the 2019 pilot year. Based on student feedback we will further customize our big data workshops (in conjuction with the Holland Computing Center) to meet the needs of our REEU students. Our students thought the biological and ecological sciences session was most beneficial as opposed to the large group workshop on Big Data. We will also ask all REEU student to create an extension product. This will provide the opportunity for all students to practice these skills as opposed to only those wanting this experience (as was the case in 2019). Also students said they wanted hands-on experience working with live insects over the summer. We did more of this towards the end. Only 2 of the 5 REEU students had field-based work. We will work to provide this experience to all students in 2020.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? All Data in reporting goals is taken from our formal evaluation conducted by professionals outside of our REEU (Evaluators) Goal 1. All REEU students successfully completed the REEU program: conducted unique researchand presented their research posters at the end of the REEU program. All students created a research product or other product as a part of the program, with 4 of the 5 students presenting their work at a conference in 2019. Based on the program evaluation, pre to post REEU students reported more confidence in: Conducting science research Working effectively with mentor Giving effective presentations Preparing a research poster (80% increase) Working Collaboratively Setting project goals Working independently on research Communicating my expectations regarding research responsibilities Goal 2. During the endpoint focus group students talked about what they gained through participating in the REEU. A few faculty members said that they thought their students gained communications skills and grew significantly when it came to working in the lab. In the post-program survey, students were asked what they gained from participating in the REU: Below shows five statements that all the REEU students agreed with. Some of the response options included skills they mentioned during the focus group, such as completing research independently and confidence in themselves as researchers and their potential as scholars. Skill in presenting my research to others Ability to complete research independently Confidence in my potential as a scholar Confidence as a researcher A research and extension product worthy of publication or presentation Goal 3. All of our students participated in group professional development activities on science communication skill development and creating extension materials. Two of our students worked more closely with PI Golick and their mentors on extension materials development with a focus on translating their research into extension products. One student used MS Publisher to develop and Extension Pamphlet for use in teaching about pollinators. Another created Facebook posts for use in communicating conservation issues around milkweed plants. Goal 4. Students talked about the ways in which the REEU helped them with their professional development and future plans during the midpoint focus group. They talked about the exposure to multiple occupations through their experience in the lab. Some of the students discussed receiving helpful advice from their mentors about graduate school and their future career paths. During the endpoint focus group, students talked about feeling that the REEU was good preparation for graduate school in that it taught them accountability and was good hands on experience. In addition, they stated that it the REEU was agood networking opportunity. In both the pre and post-program surveys, students were specifically asked about their plans for graduate school. Participating in the REEU demonstrated to have increased students' desire to apply to UNL, obtain a PhD, and apply for a graduate program in the same discipline they conducted research in over the summer. In the endpoint focus group, some students were certain that they wanted to go to graduate school, while other students were still thinking about the possibility. Of the students that said they were interested in going to graduate school, some reported that they wanted to go into entomology, while others wanted to go into other STEM fields.

Publications

• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Student Haley Moyer co-Author on poster presented at SETAC North America Meeting (International) Krueger, A., Moyer, H. L., Velez, A., Weissling, T., and Anderson, T. D. 2019. Toxicology of a pyrethroid insecticide in the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) and interactions with host plant defense chemicals and chemical fertilizers. Poster presentation by AK at at SETAC North America 40th Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, November 03-07
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Moyer, H., Krueger, A., Weissling, T., Velez, A., and Anderson, T. D. 2019. General Esterase Activity of Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) Exposed to Pyrethroid Insecticides. Poster presentation by HM at SETAC North America 40th Annual Meeting, Toronto, Ontario, November 03-07
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Moyer, H., Krueger, A., Weissling, T., Velez, A., and Anderson, T. D. 2019. General Esterase Activity of Monarch Butterflies (Danaus plexippus) Exposed to Pyrethroid Insecticides. Poster presentation by HM at Entomology 2019, St. Louis, MO, November 17-20
• Type: Conference Papers and Presentations Status: Published Year Published: 2019 Citation: Smart, M., Otto, Clint, Maul, E. 2013 Examining landscape impacts on honey bee colonies using automated hive scales. Invited presentation.. How to Speak for the Pollinators: Using Big Data to Manage and Conserve Pollinator Communities 2019, ESA Annual Conference. St. Louis, MO, November 19, 2019.