Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience are undergraduate students, graduate students, post-doctoral scientists, faculty, famers, stakeholders, and public. Changes/Problems:The first challenge was the increase of the housing price. The WSU Undergraduate Research Office arranged accommodation in a dormitory with air conditioning in anticipation of heat waves. As a consequence, the price of accommodation increased from $1,100 to $2,100 per student for the entire program. We accommodated this price increase by reducing the allowance for training materials from $1,000 per student to $600 per student, and by using the money budgeted for travel. The second challenge is that four members of the program left WSU over the last year. One of the extension specialists, Dr. Tao, was offered a job in another institution. Dr. Van Vleet took responsibility for the extension activities in the summer of 2022. In Fall of 2022 Dr VanVleet retired from WSU. His role was taken over by two extension specialists. Dr. Rachel Wieme, an extension specialist in Walla Walla County and Carol McFarland, a coordinator of Farmers Network took on design management of the Extension activities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Undergraduate students were offeres opportunities to learn about agricultural research, expension, and science communication. Post-doctoral and gradueate students contributed to mentoring of students that was an essential experience for their professional development. Specific detail on the training activitei are provided below. Research projects The following projects were conducted by the students: Mentors: Tarah Sullivan & Michael Pumphrey Project title: Microbial Remediation of Acidic Soils under wheat production Description:This project focuses on understanding microbial mechanisms in the rhizosphere for buffering soil acidity and carbonate production in areas of the Palouse where soil acidification has become a major limiting factor for yield. Working with the spring wheat breeding program, we are testing the above-ground production and vigor of various wheat genotypes, as well as the specific microbial community they recruit for increased buffering of soil acidity and aluminum toxicity.The depth and complexity of the project will be adjusted according to each individual's background and experience. Experience and skills: Organization and management of field trials, analysis of basic soil health properties (physical and chemical), soil genomic DNA extraction, bacterial and fungal cultivation and aseptic technique, selective cultivation, shotgun and amplicon sequencing, sequence analysis for individual isolates as well as bioinformatics of rhizosphere microbial communities. Mentors: Phil Bates, Karen Sanguinet, Andrei Smertenko Project title: Sustaining oil production in hot and dry climates Description:This project focuses on understanding the mechanism of crop resiliency to heat and drought with a particular emphasis on understanding and engineering increased production of plant oils used for food, bio-fuels, or chemicals. You will spend time in each lab learning techniques and will contribute to generation and analysis of material collected in field trials, greenhouses and growth chambers. The depth and complexity of the project will be adjusted according each individuals background and experience. Experience and skills: Organization and management of field trials, analysis of seed development using microscopy, genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, extraction of lipids, proteins and DNA, gas chromatography, spectrophotometry, statistical analysis, and data presentation. Mentors: Mark Lange and Andrei Smertenko Project title: Role of GABA in heat and drought stress of spring wheat Description:This project will investigate production of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid) response to heat and drought stress. The first step will be general training in sample preparation, analytics, data analysis, and how to generate reproducible data. Second, optimize the method for separation and detection of GABA. Third, obtain a calibration curve. Fourth, measure GABA production in leaves of one spring wheat genotype subjected to drought stress in the greenhouse settings. Experience and skills: growing plants in the greenhouse, sampling field trials, extraction of metabolites, chemical processing of metabolites to prepare for downstream analysis; operation of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment; metabolomics data analysis. Mentors: Laura Bartley and Kimberly Garland-Campbell. Project title: An introduction to laboratory and field techniques in Biofortification Biofortification: The process of increasing the concentration and availability of mineral nutrients and vitamins in crops for human consumption. Problem: The goal of this project is to establish the variation in concentration of phytate in wheat germplasm using a high-performance liquid chromatography. Results will be used to breed wheat for improved human nutrition. Improved human nutrition can increase quality of life and reduce the need for dietary meat, facilitating vegetarian diets, which have a lower climate-impact relative to omnivorous diets. Experience and skills: Perform extraction of phytate from samples of wheat flour; General training on chromatographic separation and quantification of phytate; Occasional field trips to hand harvest samples grown in the field to minimize contamination from the elements of interest found in nature and to measure other plant traits; Analyze, visualize and communicate regarding project data. Trainers: Camille Steber, Rob Brueggeman Project title: Preventing problems from preharvest germination of wheat and barley. Description:This project focuses on the mechanisms controlling alpha-amylase protein expression during germination of barley and wheat grain.The student will spend time in the field (Spillman Farm) contributing to wheat and barley collection for greenhouse germination tests and spend time in the lab learning techniques for the analysis of the alpha-amylase enzymes produced during germination that degrade starch. The depth and complexity of the project will be adjusted according to each individual's interest, background, and experience. Experience and skills: Organization and management of field trials, analysis of seed development and germination, comparison of alpha-amylase gene sequences in barley and wheat, extraction of proteins, western analysis, enzyme assays, interaction with farmers, statistical analysis, and data presentation. Presentation of posters at the symposium Students were taught and mentored on the preparation of posters summarizing their laboratory projects. There was a choice to team up with another student or make an individual poster. Posters were reviewed by mentors and students used feedback to improve the quality of posters. Students were also given an opportunity to present the poster at mentor lab meetings and get feedback from the research group. The symposium was held on August 4, 2023. The posters were mounted in the Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE) building on WSU Pullman campus. Our program recruited judges to evaluate design, materials, and presentation. Each poster was assigned three judges. Posters with the highest scores were offered prizes. The top prize was a cash prize of $200. Two runners up were awarded cash prizes of $100. The winning poster was by Skyler Allison from Washington State University, the poster by Oscar Rodriguez and Nallely Leon won the second prize, and two posters shared the third place: Dana Passinhas-Bergman's and Trinity Hanning's poster, and Anna Carroll's poster. Evaluation of program We used a Qualtrics-deployed survey developed by Dr. Peck to anonymously acquire quantitative and qualitative feedback from participants. We asked trainees to score their gains in professional skills, experience, and knowledge from participating in four components of the program: (i) working in the lab; (ii) working on the extension project; (iii) working on symposium poster; and (iv) interacting informally with others in the lab and the program. The list below shows the mean gain from ten responses on a scale from 0 - "None at all" to 4 - "A great deal." Gain reported by trainees for four main activities Activity Mean Gain, 4 point scale Working in lab 3.70 Working on the extension project 3.70 Working on the symposium poster 3.80 Interacting informally with others in the lab and the program3.60 Analysis of open-ended qualitative feedback identified one area for improvement: 1. Improve coordination between the Extension and laboratory-based activities to separate, in particular have deadlines for the extension project several weeks before the symposium to allow more time on completion of research projects. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?1. Interns studied published materials on soil health and communicated results of their search as a presentation to farmers and stakeholders at Field day on the WSU Wilke research farm. 2. Web-blog "Drought Resilience in Dry Land: Plant Auxins and Adaptive Management" by Anna Buetow, Carol McFarland, and Rachel Wieme was published on WSU web site. https://csanr.wsu.edu/drought-resilience-in-dry-land-plant-auxins-and-adaptive-management/ 3. Carol McFarland and Oscar Rodriguez recorded a podcast with Moses Boone about field scale pH survey at a Holland-Boone Farm. The discussion features co-production of research around a featuring the research and extension experiences for undergraduate students and the use of in-field pH meters and experimental design to capture pH variability across the field and within the soil profile and a discussion of low pH symptoms in lentils, nitrogen fertilizer contribution to low pH, and the benefits of the co-production of research. This podcast was downloaded 72 times. https://www.pnwfarmersnetwork.org/podcast/on-farm-trials-ft-moses-boone-and-oscar-rodriguez/ 4. Skyler Allison, Nallely Leon, Rachel Weime, and Carol McFarland published a web blog "What's weighing down your soil?" on the Washington Soil Health Initiative website. https://washingtonsoilhealthinitiative.com/2023/09/whats-weighing-down-your-soil/ 5. Eli Eleccion and Heidi Vandyk recorded a Wheat Beat podcast "Covering the bases of soil acidity and liming with". https://soundcloud.com/wsu-wheat-beat-podcast/wbp164?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing 6. Anna Carroll and Anna Buetow recorded a Wheat Beat podcast "Different aspects of drought resilience". https://soundcloud.com/wsu-wheat-beat-podcast/wbp166?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Maintain recruitment activities across PUIs in Washington State. Provide more specific information about program activities and clearly describe duties and responsibilities of the students during recruiting. 2. Maintain successful practices from the first year in conducting activities that aim at development at team building, research training, extension experience, and communication skills. 2. Learn from and aim to complete all extension activities by the end of the first week of July. 3. Run the "ice-breaking" session before the program start and weekly meetings during the program. Organize at least two social activates for our REEU in addition to the activities organized by the Undergraduate Research Office 4. Keep research projects focused and well-designed. 5. Include production of podcasts in the extension component of the program.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the third year of the funding cycle our efforts focused on optimizing all key stages of the program taking into account feedback from the students and partners. The feedback was collected at the end of the program using an open-ended Qualtrics survey. The feedback identified the following areas for improvement: 1. Students requested more onboarding activities before the start of the program projects that introduce information about the projects and allow trainees to become better acquainted with each other and with mentors. 2. More specific and focused low-risk project design. 3. Expectations about the content and format of research projects were not met for some students. Specific activities, procedures, and outcomes are described below. Recruitment In the first stage of the recruitment Dr. Laura Bartley gave a research seminar at Gonzaga University that contained information about the summer program. The program was advertised at Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, Lewis-Clark State College, Whitman College, and Central Washington University using flyers that contained a QR code for the Qualtrics application form. In addition the program was advertised on the WSU Undergraduate Research Office Website. The form was developed by Dr Peck in year 2 and includes questions about the student's background, previous experience, motivation for joining the program, and expectations from the program. Applicants were selected for their interests and background for the interviews by Dr Peck and Dr Smertenko. The interviews were conducted over a 30 minute Zoom-meeting. One of the discussion points during the interview was students' interests and preference for a type of laboratory project. Each student was given an opportunity to select a project on the whole-organism or molecular level. Then student accepted the offer and their names and affiliations are listed below: The 2023 season participants that accepted the offer Student Home institution Anna Carroll Eastern Washington University Yizhen Zhao Whitman College, Walla Walla Anna Buetow Whitman College, Walla Walla Heidi Vandyk Western Washington University Nallely Leon Lewis Clark State College Dana Passinhas-Bergman Washington State University Skyler Allison Washington State University Emilio Eleccion Washington State University Oscar Rordiguez Washington State University Trinity Hanning Washington State University This group includes students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds: 6 from underprivileged socioeconomic backgrounds (italics), three from diverse cultural background, 8 females, one male, and one transgender. A student was considered from an underprivileged socioeconomic background if they identified themselves as "Have/had no parents or legal guardians that completed a bachelor's degree (i.e., you are a first generation college student). Were or currently are eligible for Federal Pell grants. Received support from the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) as a parent or child. Were eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program for two or more years". Preparation and execution of projects. Two "ice-breaker" sessions were organized during May to get students acquainted with each other. Mentors met with students by Zoom in May to discuss the project objectives and provide students with relevant literature. We accommodated different start dates for students who are on semesters and quarters (Eastern Washington University and Western Washington University). Students worked individually or in groups of two or three on five projects described below. Faculty, post-doctoral scientists, and graduate students in the corresponding labs contributed to training students. In addition to the lab projects, students participated in weekly meetings run by Dr. Peck and Dr. Smertenko. The meetings focused on keeping cohesion in the group and mitigating issues that students could experience in all aspects of the program starting from housing and ending with the mentorship. The topics for the meetings are listed below: May 30, 2023 Orientation and rules of working in a research lab, informing about the goals of the program July 7, 2023. Sharing lab experiences, discussing science communication skills, and writing abstracts about the intern's projects. July 14, 2023. Picnic in the Hells Canyon. July 202023. Providing feedback on student's abstracts and developing the final version of the abstract for submitting to the WSU Undergraduate Research Office. Discuss preparation of posters. July 27, 2023. Troubleshooting making posters, checking that students get feedback on the poster from their lab mentors. August 4, 2023. Symposium for the summer research interns across WSU. 2.2. Extension project All trainees participated in the extension project "On-farm experimentation for improving soil health ". This project was mentored by WSU Whitman County Extension Specialist Dr. Rachel Wieme and Dr. Carol McFarland. Description:Soil nutrient uptake and accumulation is greatly influenced by soil pH. Throughout most of the Pacific Northwest (PNW), soil health and soil pH has significantly degraded over the past century. This project provides experience with the soil acidity pH, approaches for measuring soil pH on the research farms and at farmers fields, and learning about solutions for improving soil health. Experience and skills: knowledge about soil acidity and approaches to improve soil health, general knowledge about farm organization, communication of science to the public. Activities of the extension project are listed below. Students were divided in three groups and each picked one of the following projects: (i) Soil acidity and health; (ii) On-farm experimentation; (iii) mitigating the impact of stress on plants. Students were trained to do presentations through the following activities: (i) practice presentations in the class and get feedback from mentor and peers, (ii) observed presentations by faculty and extension specialists during Lind Field Day, and (iii) analyzed experience from the field day and adjusted their presentations. The presentation was at a field day at Wilke research farm. After presenting, students answered questions from the audience, which comprised local farmers and agricultural technology company vendors, providing trainees with an opportunity to engage with end users of WSU research. Other activities included recording three podcasts, and writing two web blogs. To support the Extension-related activities we conducted weekly meetings on the topics indicated below. June 1, 2023. Introduction to topics and three paths for presenting the extension projects: field day presentation, podcasts, and web blog. June 8, 2023. Creating a detailed draft plan for extension presentations. June 15, 2023. Trip to the Washington State University Lind research farm Field Day to observe the techniques used for communicating relevant topics to stakeholders by faculty and extension specialists. June 22, 2023. Reflection on the observations from the Lind Field Day and refine the plan for the presentation at the Field Day at WSU Wilke research farm. June 28, 2023. Rehearsal of the presentation at the Wilke Field Day. June 29, 2023. Presentation at the Wilke Field day. July 25, Recording a podcast and deadline to submit a draft of the web blogs.
Publications
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Progress 04/01/22 to 03/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:Target audiences were undergraduate students and and farmers. Changes/Problems:The first challenge was the increase of the housing price. The WSU Undergraduate Research Office arranged accommodation in a dormitory with air conditioning in anticipation of heat waves. As a consequence, the price of accommodation increased from $1,100 to $1,600 per student for the entire program. We accommodated this price increase by reducing the allowance for training materials from $1,000 per student to $600 per student. The second challenge is that four members of the program left WSU over the last year. One of the extension specialists, Dr. Tao, was offered a job in another institution. Dr. Van Vleet took responsibility for the extension activities in the summer of 2022. In Fall of 2022 Dr VanVleet retired from WSU. His role was taken over by two extension specialists. Dr. Rachel Wieme, an extension specialist in Walla Walla County and Carol McFarland, a coordinator of Farmers Network. Carol started the Farmers Network project together with Dr. Tao and will be able to expose students to the Farmers Network activities. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students participated in the following training and professional development activities: Research projects Project 1. Mentors: Phil Bates, Karen Sanguinet Project title: Sustaining oil production in hot and dry climates Description: This project focuses on understanding mechanism of crop resiliency to heat and drought with a particular emphasis on production of oils. Trainees will spend time in each lab learning techniques and will contribute to generation and analysis of material collected in field trials, greenhouses and growth chambers. The depth and complexity of the project will be adjusted according each individual's background and experience. Experience and skills: Organization and management of field trials, analysis of seed development using microscopy, genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, extraction of lipids, proteins and DNA, gas chromatography, spectrophotometry, statistical analysis, and data presentation. Project 2. Mentors: Kim Garland-Campbell, Mark Lange Project title: Phenotypic and metabolic adaptations correlating with drought tolerance in wheat Description: This project will investigate breeding populations of wheat, members of which differ in their tolerance to drought treatment, for phenotypic variation and the differential induction of small molecules (metabolites). The focus of these investigations will be on using drone technology to survey field-grown wheat and on the accumulation of osmolytes, which are small molecules--such as proline, sucrose, raffinose and malic acid--that play key roles in maintaining cell volume and fluid balance under drought stress. Experience and skills: drone flights and image acquisition; harvesting of field-grown plant material; extraction of metabolites; chemical processing of metabolites to prepare for downstream analysis; operation of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry equipment; image and metabolomics data analysis. Project 3. Mentors: Camille Steber, Andrei Smertenko, Steve VanVleet Project title: Preventing problems from preharvest germination of wheat. Description: This project focuses on the mechanisms controlling alpha-amylase protein expression during germination of wheat grain. Wheat can initiate germination on the mother plant if there is rain before harvest, leading to problems with poor grain quality and financial losses for farmers. You will meet farmers, spend time in the field contributing to collection of wheat for greenhouse germination tests, and spend time in the lab learning techniques for the analysis of enzymes produced during germination that degrade wheat starch. The depth and complexity of the project will be adjusted according to each individual's interest, background, and experience. Experience and skills: Organization and management of field trials, analysis of seed development and germination, genome editing using CRISPR-Cas9 technology, extraction of proteins, western analysis, enzyme assays, extension and interaction with farmers, statistical analysis, and data presentation. Project 4. Mentors: Tarah Sullivan, John Peters, Laura Bartley, Steve VanVleet Project title: Soil-Root-Microbe Interactions: Focus on Nitrogen and Soil pH in Washington State Description: Attaining mineral nutrients and avoiding toxic metals is critical for plant health and crop yields, which are necessary to meet demand from a growing human population with a shifting diet. This project will examine the interaction of plants, bacteria and other microbes, and soil properties in greenhouse "mesocosm" studies that allow observation of root structures. Soil mixtures will include locally sourced substrates with varying pH. Microbial inoculants will include "diazotroph" microbes being developed as nitrogen biofertilizers. Plant species of focus are several spring wheat varieties with contrasting tolerance to pH stress, and switchgrass, a promising bioenergy crop. This project will generate new understanding of how plants and microbial communities interact with each other to adapt, and potentially modify, soil characteristics. Experience and skills: collection of field samples, microbiology, general laboratory techniques, statistical analysis and data presentation. Project 5. Mentors: Andrei Smertenko Title: Plant genetics and biochemistry Description: Plant growth and reproduction requires generation of new cells through cell divisions. Unlike animals that divide cells using constriction, plants partition daughter cells by the cell plate. Cell division is highly sensitive to heat stress. Increasing resiliency of this process to high temperatures. Our team studies impacts of heat on key stages of cell division. This project focuses on functional characterization of proteins responsible for regulation of microtubules in the phragmoplast. Experience and skills: plant sampling in field trails, DNA isolation and electrophoresis, analysis of gel images. Extension project All trainees participated in the extension project "Agronomic Responses to Acidic Soils". This project was mentored by WSU Whitman County Extension Specialist Dr. Steve Van Vleet. Description: Soil nutrient uptake and accumulation is greatly influenced by soil pH. Throughout most of the Pacific Northwest (PNW), soil health and soil pH has significantly degraded over the past century. This project focused on laboratory analysis of soil pH, soil nutrient levels via soil testing results, and the evaluation of crop roots in varying pH soils on production farms throughout eastern Washington. Students traveled to diversified farms with varying levels of soil acidity, collecting soil samples, evaluating soil pH and conducting presentation(s) at field day(s) on soil acidity and ways to mitigate further soil acidification. Experience and skills: knowledge about soil acidity and approaches to improve soil health, general knowledge about farm organization, communication of science to public. Activities of the extension project are listed in Table 2. Each student in the group picked a topic about soil health, collected information on this topic, and prepared a 5-minute long presentation. Students were trained to do presentations through the following activities: (i) practice presentations in the class and get feedback from mentor and peers, (ii) observed presentations by faculty and extension specialists at Spillman Farm, and (iii) analyzed experience from the field day and adjusted their presentations. The final presentation was at a field day in Dayton. After presenting, students answered questions from the audience, which was comprised of local farmers and agricultural technology company vendors, providing trainees with an opportunity to engage with end users of WSU research. Table 2. Extension project activities Date Activity Name Description of activity June 21 Farm Trip #1 Collecting soil samples and Farm Tour June 23 Class 1 Investigation of data related to soil health June 28 Class 2 Identify subtopics for trainee presentations June 30 Farm Trip #2 Attend field day in WSU Spillman research farm and observe presentations given by faculty and extension specialists July 5 Class 3 Discuss the field day experience and work on the trainee presentation July 7 Class 4 Practice the field day presentation July 11 Farm Trip #3 Present at the field day in Dayton How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Interns studied soil health topics and communicated results of their search in a lecture format to farmers and stakeholders at Walla Walla field day on July 11. Students were also taught and mentored on the preparation of posters summarizing their laboratory projects. There was a choice to team up with another student or make an individual poster. Posters were reviewed by mentors and students used feedback to improve the quality of posters. Students were also given an opportunity to present the poster at mentor lab meetings and get feedback from the research group. The symposium was held on July 29. The posters were mounted in the Center for Undergraduate Education (CUE) building on WSU Pullman campus. Our program recruited judges to evaluate design, materials, and presentation. Each poster was assigned three judges, and presenters with highest scores were offered prizes. The top prize was a bursary to attend a professional conference of student's choice. Two runners up were awarded a cash prize. The winner, Grace Cooper from Gonzaga University, plans to attend American Society for Microbiology meeting 2023(June 15-19) in Houston, TX. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?1. Maintain the successful practices from the first year in conducting activities that aim at development of research, extension, and communication skills. 2. Learn from feedback in year one and modify the program to address weaknesses identified by the participants to improve student's learning experience. Specifically we plan to address the following areas. 2.1. Build stronger relationships between participants before the beginning of the program and during the program. During recruitment, program leaders will meet individually with each applicant to align expectations and build a relationship. Before the program begins, we will introduce participants to each other through a Zoom meeting. Afterwards students will meet every two weeks by Zoom to discuss the extension project. During the summer we will host coffee hours every week to talk to students about their experience. 2.2. Improve laboratory experience of students to have multiple experimental milestones allowing the students to be more part of the hypothesis-experiment-analyze-learn cycle. 2.3. Provide more specific information about program activities and clearly describe duties and responsibilities of the students during recruiting. 3. Recruit from two additional PUI in Washington State - Whitman College and Central Washington University. 4. Include production of podcasts in the extension component of the program. Potential topics for podcasts will be soil pH, soil fertility, carbon sequestration, liming, and production of biofuels from crops.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During the first year of the funding cycle we developed procedures for the key stages in the program: recruitment, preparation of the projects, execution of the projects, evaluation of learning outcomes, and discussions with project partners to identify and implement improvements for the following year. These procedures and outcomes are described below. 1. Recruitment In the first stage of the recruitment Dr. Smertenko and Dr. Peck gave research seminars that contained information about the summer program at Eastern Washington University, Gonzaga University, and Lewis-Clark State College. At each of these institutions we advertised the program using flyers that contained a QR code for the Qualtrics application form. The form was developed by Dr Peck and includes questions about student's background, previous experience, motivation for joining the program, and expectations from the program. Applicants who registered online were invited to participate in a Zoom-meeting with mentors to discuss projects. Students learned about projects and were given an opportunity to choose their project. Then we made offers to ten undergraduates and eight students listed in Table 1 accepted the offer. Table 1: 2022 participants Student Home institution Carissa, L, Morrison Eastern Washington University Bethlehem Alemu Yohannes Eastern Washington University Brend'n Marshal Blankenship Washington State University Zachary J Cunningham Lewis Clark State College Thomas Conway Washington State University Grace Cooper Gonzaga University Madilyn Mae Sorenson Lewis Clark State College Daria Rebecca Winterer Washington State University This group includes students from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds: 5 females and two first-generation students. 2. Preparation and execution of projects. Mentors met with students by Zoom in May to discuss the project objectives and provide students with relevant literature. We accommodated different start dates for students who are on semesters and quarters. Students worked individually or in groups of two or three on five projects described below. Faculty, post-doctoral scientists, and graduate students in the corresponding labs contributed to training students. 3. Evaluation We used a Qualtrics-deployed survey developed by Dr. Peck to anonymously acquire quantitative and qualitative feedback from participants. We asked trainees to score their gains in professional skills, experience, and knowledge from participating in four components of the program: (i) working in the lab; (ii) working on the extension project; (iii) working on symposium poster; and (iv) interacting informally with others in the lab and the program. Table 3. Gain reported by trainees for four main activities Activity Mean Gain, 5 point scale Working in lab 3.22 Working on the extension project 4.00 Working on the symposium poster 3.56 Interacting informally with others in the lab and the program 3.22 Table 3 shows the mean gain from nine responses on a scale from 1 - "None at all" to 5 - "A great deal." Trainees reported that they gained "A lot" from the Extension experience and between "A moderate amount" and "A lot" for the remaining components. Analysis of open-ended qualitative feedback identified the following areas for improvement: 1. More onboarding activities before start of the program projects that introduce information about the projects and allow trainees to become better acquainted with each other and with mentors. 2. More specific project design. Several students wanted to work on specific low-risk projects. 3. Expectations about the content and format of research projects were not met for some students. In addition to the feedback from students, we collected feedback from members of our advisory committee: Ben Barstow (Washington Grain Commission), Julie Beckstead (Gonzaga), Wendy Shuttleworth (LCSC), and Becky Brown (EWU). The committee suggested approaches for improving cohort teambuilding and recruitment, and also provided insights into expanding topics and presentation formats for extension activities.
Publications
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