Progress 04/01/23 to 03/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:We spoke with faculty and administrators at five universities in late fall semester 2023 through early spring semester 2024. These included three Hispanic Serving Institution campuses, Texas A&M-Kingsville (TAMUK), University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), and University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), and two Historically Black College or University campuses, Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) and Texas Southern University (TSU). We recruited students via in-classroom presentations and office meetings with faculty at TAMUK, UTRGV, and UTSA. We were unable to secure invitations for in-classroom recruiting at PVAMU and TSU. Our recruiting efforts in 2023-2024 were successful in that we received 23 complete applications (up from 16 in 2023), including 11 applications from female students and 12 from male students. From the 23 applications, 12 students (5 female, 7 male) were invited to participate based on their applications, which include transcripts, resumé, essay, and application requesting personal and academic information, including citizenship/residence status. One female student (A. Martinez) presented her summer 2023 research results at the Entomological Society of America National Meeting in November 2023. [Five students from the summer 2023 cohort (S. Kolli, J. Garces, A. Encina, K. González, M. Santana) will present their results at the November 2024 National Meeting]. We note here that participating in the National Meeting has become difficult because the meeting's deadline was recently moved up to late May/early June, mere days after the REU students begin their experience. Because of this, we are considering other options for students, including presenting their results at the National Meeting in the calendar year after their summer experience. Changes/Problems:With changes implemented between fall 2022 and spring 2024 we were able to meet cumulative recruiting and expenditure expectations for 2022-2024. So far, we recruited (and will have hosted) 27 participants in 3 active years (summers 2022, 2023, 2024). Our project proposed recruiting nine participants per year (5-year total = 45 participants), so having hosted 27 participants by summer 2024 we are on track to recruiting 45 participants by the project's termination. This will be accomplished by recruiting on average 9 participants per year for summers 2025 and 2026. A major problem that was particularly evident in 2023 (with 12 participants) was the increased cost of living for participants, mainly due to two reasons: (i) general inflation in living expenses, and (ii) lack of off-campus housing options for student participants. Our proposal's budget assumed normal inflation and off-campus housing (generally less expensive than on-campus housing). As is well known, inflation has been a nationwide (and worldwide) problem for the last several years; off-campus housing options were unavailable in 2022 and 2023 due to policy changes at apartment complexes that we contacted during the proposal writing stage in 2020. Off-campus housing became available this year (though only one apartment complex) at a cost reasonably similar to our original projection. To offset the increased cost per student participant we asked the Faculty Advisors (host labs for students) to waive, unless indispensable, the laboratory bench fee associated with students ($990 per student). The bench fee was then used to supplement the student support costs (meals and housing, salary). Altogether, the support for this year's participants was $600/week, plus paid-for housing. With the implemented changes, the support offered by our program is now minimally comparable to the support offered by other REEU/REU programs in our college and on our campus. If the inflation rate and other variables continue affecting the cost of living for our participants in coming years, we may request a change in budget to offer reasonable, and competitive stipends to students interested in participating in our program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students who participated in summer 2023 and are participating in this summer's REEU program are immersed in research training activities in faculty labs, as well as in coaching sessions to improve their science aptitudes, critical thinking skills, and abilities for success in diverse contexts. The research training opportunities in 2023 included 12 10-week, full-time immersion experiences in nine faculty research labs (Z. Adelman, M. Eubanks, J. Rangel, A. Helms, H. Fadamiro, A. Tarone, A. Chavez, G. Hamer, P. Pietrantonio) in our department. This year, another 12 research training opportunities were provided in 10 faculty research labs (Z. Adelman, J. Bernal, H. Fadamiro, G. Hamer, A. Helms, T. Magalhaes, P. Pietrantonio, J. Rangel, H. Song, K. Zhu-Salzman). Altogether, this represents ~9,600 hours of immersion in research activities by the end of summer 2024. The coaching sessions minimally include 4 hours per week; by the end of summer 2024 coaching time will amount to at least 960 hours. The focus of the research activities that the participants have engaged in span from genetic transformation and ecology of mosquitoes to plant-insect chemical communication to behavioral ecology of bees to Orthoptera systematics and insect pest microbiomes, and beyond. Importantly, three faculty research laboratories (H. Song, T. Magalhaes, K. Zhu-Salzman) participated in the program for the first time in summer 2024. Finally, as noted above, past participants presented their research results at scientific meetings, and we anticipate that current participants will also present their results at scientific meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have continued to reach out to Texas HSI and HBCU campuses. As noted above, this year we recruited in person and in classrooms at three campuses (UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, Texas A&M Kingsville). We are currently planning on recruiting for 2025 at an out-of-state HBCU campus (Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, AL), where we have reached out to a personal contact (C. Prakash) for assistance. Finally, the summer 2023 participants presented their research results at two venues unrelated to REEU/REU programs where students could learn about our program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are satisfied with our progress in accomplishing our project's goals and are confident that with experiences in 2022-2024 we will have no difficulty in accomplishing our goals at project termination. In Year 1 (2022) we were unsatisfied with the lower than planned size of our first cohort but with the larger-than-planned cohorts in Years 2 and 3 (2023, 2024) we are on track to meet overall project goals in terms of number of participants, i.e., nine participants per year, 45 participants over 5 years. In retrospect it was useful to begin with a small cohort so that any problems that arose in Year 1 (summer 2022) could be easily resolved in subsequent years. At the same time, we have been able to obtain feedback from REEU participants, Faculty Advisors, and Mentors which will improve our coaching, hosting advising, and recruiting efforts in anticipation of summers 2025, 2026. The project benefited in summer 2023 from the effective and active participation of a volunteer graduate student, N. Aguirre, who was instrumental in a variety of ways, from advising the participants on their research projects, to weekly science coaching (with PI Bernal), to serving as a close personal advisor to the students. The graduate student, N. Aguirre, graduated last year and so did not participate this year (2024). We note that we did not budget for compensating a graduate student participant in the project and we will request compensation in any renewal requests.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We are on schedule to satisfy Objective 1, Provide experiential learning opportunities through faculty-guided research to 45 academically qualified, underrepresented, undergraduates from Texas HSI and HBCU campuses within five effective project years (including summers 2022-2026). By the end of three effective project years (2022-2024) we will have provided experiential learning opportunities to 27 undergraduate students (12 female, 15 male). We consider the project's first year (2021) ineffectual for a variety of reasons explained in the 2022 project report (e.g., students were not hosted in summer 2021 because the project start date 3/31/21 left us with 1 month to recruit, hold pre-experience meetings, arrange room and board logistics, and complete administrative tasks for students; additionally, we anticipated that research experiences would be affected by remaining COVID restrictions on research labs on our campus). At the current pace, to satisfy Objective 1 we must recruit on average 9 students per each of two summers, as originally proposed, a rate that is clearly accomplishable considering the 2023 and 2024 summer experiences in which we recruited 12 students in each year. Under Objective 2, train students in the scientific method, 15 students completed the 10-week research training experience between 2022 and 2023, and there are 12 students in training this summer (2024). All three students in the 2022 cohort presented their research results at campus and college REU/REEU and other events at TAMU in August 2022 and March 2023. Additionally, two of those students presented their research results at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia in Vancouver. All 12 students in the 2023 cohort presented their research results at campus and college REU/REEU and other events at TAMU in July/August 2022, and six will have presented their results at the 2023 or 2024 Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America. Under Objective 3, empower students to successfully pursue STEM-intensive careers. All three students participating in summer 2022 have graduated college. One participant (C. Terry) obtained an internship in an agricultural services company and is now employed at the same company; another (A. Brown) graduated college and will begin graduate school this year (2024); the third student (T. Lewis) has been unresponsive, and we are unaware of her current situation. Several students participating in summer 2023 have graduated, including one student (J. Gandi) who is currently in graduate school, another (A. Martinez) applied for graduate school (for fall 2024), and three applied to professional or medical schools (S. Kolli, K. Gonzalez, J. Garces). Under Objective 4, create a sustained, student community of practice of science we report that science coaching has continued through exchanges (e.g., telephone, and group and personal email and messaging communications) and in person (e.g., during preparation and presentation of participant research results at science meetings in November 2022 and 2023, and upcoming in November 2024).
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Progress 04/01/22 to 03/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:We spoke with faculty and administrators and recruited students at five universities in late winter through early spring semester 2023. These included three Hispanic Serving Institution campuses, Texas A&M-Kingsville, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, and University of Texas San Antonio, and two Historically Black College or University campuses, Prairie View A&M University and Texas Southern University. Recruitment at all five campuses relied on in-classroom presentations to students and meetings with faculty and administrators. Unlike 2022, this year we were able to visit classrooms and faculty and administrators at the UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, and Texas Southern University campuses. We reached other smaller universities by email, including Huston-Tillotson University, Jarvis Christian College, Wiley College, and Southwestern Christian College. Our recruiting efforts in 2023 were successful in that we received 16 complete applications (9 female, 7 male) from which 12 applicants (5 female, 7 male) were invited to participate. Changes/Problems:With changes implemented during 2022-2023 we were able to meet recruiting and expenditure expectations for 2023. As noted above, we recruited (and will have hosted) 15 participants in 2 years (2022, 2023); we anticipated recruiting nine participants per year, so in the coming three years we are planning to recruit on average 10 participants per year. A major problem evident in 2023 is the increased cost of living for participants, mainly due to two reasons. First, our budget was planned (i) for a 5-year period beginning fall 2020, with participants arriving on our campus in June 2021, and (ii) assuming a normal (in recent years) inflation rate. However, the cumulative inflation rate over the 2 years prior to June 2021 was 6.07%, which is less than half the inflation rate in the two years prior to May 2023, which is 12.98 (i.e., $100 in May 2021 = $112.98 in May 2023; https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm). Secondly, our estimated allotment for participant housing was $1650 per participant over 10 weeks (= $550 per month), assuming that participants would be housed in off-campus apartments (based on conversations with off-campus apartment managers). However, off-campus apartments changed their rental policies before summer 2022 to no longer offer 3-month, summer rentals. Because of this, students were housed in on-campus apartments which charge a daily rate of $37/night/participant for a total of $2590 per participant (70 nights x $37 = $2590 per participant). We budgeted a total of $3200 for rent and food ($1650 rent; $1550 food) so the on-campus rent of $2590 severely impacted our participant support (rent and food) costs. To compensate for this, we used funds designated to laboratory bench fees ($990 per participant) to partly pay for housing and enhance student stipends to partially account for the impact of inflation on the cost of living. This stipend for this year's participants is $500/week, which is below the stipend paid to participants in other REEU/REU in our college and on our campus. If the inflation rate and other variables continue affecting the cost of living for our participants in coming years, we may request a change in budget to offer reasonable, fair, and competitive stipends to students interested in participating in our program. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students who participated in the summer 2022 and 2023 REEU program are immersed in research training activities in faculty labs, as well as in coaching sessions to improve their science aptitudes, creative/critical thinking and professional development skills, JEDI awareness tailored to historically underrepresented populations in STEMM, and abilities for success while underrepresented. Students also benefited from a creative thinking profile to help them identify areas of strength and improvement to improve their problem-solving skills. The research training opportunities in 2022 included 10-week, full-time immersion in three faculty research labs (Z. Adelman, A. Helms, J. Rangel) in our department; this year, students are in nine faculty research labs (Z. Adelman, M. Eubanks, J. Rangel, A. Helms, H. Fadamiro, A. Tarone, A. Chavez, G. Hamer, P. Pietrantonio). Altogether, this will represent up to 6,000 hours (40 h/week x 10 weeks x 15 participants) of immersion in research activities by the end of summer 2023. The coaching sessions minimally include 4 hours per week; by the end of summer 2023 coaching time will amount to at least 600 hours. The focus of the research activities that the participants have engaged in span from molecular transformation and ecology of mosquitoes to plant-insect chemical communication to behavioral ecology of bees and beyond. Finally, as noted above, past participants presented their research results at scientific meetings, and we anticipate that current participants will also present their results at scientific meetings. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have continued to reach out to Texas HSI and HBCU campuses. As noted above, this year we recruited in person at five campuses (UT Rio Grande Valley, UT San Antonio, Prairie View A&M University, Texas A&M University Kingsville, Texas Southern University). Also, we distributed program information via administrators (Dean's offices, Undergraduate Research offices, Honors colleges, etc.) at all Texas HBCUs, and one HSI (UT Austin). Finally, the summer 2022 participants presented their research results at two venues unrelated to REEU/REU programs where community members learned about our program. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are satisfied with our progress in accomplishing our project's goals to date and are confident that we will accomplish our projected goals by the project's termination date. Although last year we were unsatisfied with the smaller-than-planned size of our first cohort, this year's large cohort puts us back on track to meet overall project goals in terms of number of participants. Additionally, in retrospect it was useful to begin with a small cohort so that first-year (summer 2022) challenges could be easily resolved, we could prepare for coordinating Year 2 (summer 2023) activities. After Year 1, we collected participant feedback which allowed us to improve on three facets of our program: (1) coaching sessions; (2) defining host lab roles and participation (Faculty Advisors and Graduate student/Postdoc mentors); and, (3) incorporation of a hands-on graduate-student advisor for the program. During Year 1, the project benefited from the effective and active participation of a volunteer graduate student, Ms. Natalie Aguirre, who was instrumental in a variety of ways, from advising the participants on their research projects, to weekly science coaching (with PI Bernal), to serving as a close personal advisor to the students. During Year 2, Ms. Aguirre continued supporting students prior to and during the summer program. Ms. Aguirre is graduating in 2023 and we anticipate seeking a graduate student to assist with the project in the coming years. We note that we did not budget for compensating a graduate student participant in the project and we will request such compensation in any renewal requests. We will continue to collect participant feedback from summer 2023's large cohort and improve the program for Year 3, which we expect enrollment of ~10 students.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We are on schedule to satisfy Objective 1, Provide experiential learning opportunities through faculty-guided research to 45 academically qualified, underrepresented, undergraduates from Texas HSI and HBCU campuses within five effective project years. In two effective project years (2022, 2023) we provided experiential learning opportunities to 15 undergraduate students (7 female, 8 male). The project's first year (2021) was not effective for a variety of reasons explained in the 2022 project report (i.e., research experiences would be affected by remaining COVID restrictions on research labs; the end of March start date left us with 1 month to recruit, hold pre-experience meetings, arrange room and boarding logistics, and complete administrative tasks for students). At the current pace, to satisfy Objective 1 we must recruit on average 10 students per each of three summers, which is clearly accomplishable considering the present (2023) summer's experience. Under Objective 2, train students in the scientific method, three students completed the 10-week research training experience in 2022, and there are 12 students in training this summer. All three students in the 2022 cohort presented their research results at campus and college REU/REEU and other events at TAMU in August 2022 and March 2023. Additionally, two of those students presented their research results at the 2022 Joint Annual Meeting of the Entomological Societies of America, Canada, and British Columbia in Vancouver (https://www.entsoc.org/events/annual-meeting/2022-jam): C. Terry et al., Can drought shield hay grasses from fall armyworm pest?; A. Brown et al., Differences in feeding behavior between European and Africanized honey bee (Apis mellifera) larvae; Martinez, A. Brown, Rangel, Differences in feeding behavior between worker and drone honey bee (Apis millifera) larvae. While all three past participants remain in college, we report our first results towards our goals under Objective 3, empower students to successfully pursue STEM-intensive careers. Empowered by his REEU experience, one participant sought and obtained a paid, 12-week, out of state internship at Indiana Packers Corporation, Delphi, Indiana. The internship is focused on swine production, particularly feed production, swine production and care (including sanitation, healthcare, diet, etc.), and processing and packaging. Under Objective 4, create a sustained, student community of practice of science we report that science coaching has continued through multiple channels of communication (e.g., electronic: group and personal email and messaging communications) and in person (e.g., during preparation and presentation of participant research results at science meetings in November 2022 and March 2023). We are presently updating our project website (https://entomology.tamu.edu/reeu/) to add a page where we showcase all participant research products. We anticipate that the update will be launched by end of summer 2023.
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Progress 04/01/21 to 03/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:We spoke with faculty and administrators, and recruited students at three universities in early spring semester 2022: Texas A&M-Kingsville, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, both Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Prairie View A&M University, a Historically Black College or University. Recruitment at TAMUK relied on in-classroom meetings and meetings with faculty and administrators. We visited eight classrooms and met with four faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Dick and Mary Lewis Kleberg College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Additionally, we met with Honors College Dean Dr. Tom Spencer, with whom we will be collaborating in the coming years. Recruitment at UTRGV relied on virtual meetings and targeted (mostly) biology students associated with the USDA-REEU project "Empowering Future Agricultural Scientists: food security and climate change research experiences for undergraduate students," which is led by our project collaborator Dr. Teresa Feria. Our recruitment efforts at UTGRGV included a talk focused on diversity issues titled "Not Just Joining but Belonging: A Conversation About Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in STEM fields". This talk given by Co-PI Medina discussed how regardless of the desire to embrace diversity as a value expressed by most scientists, students from historically underrepresented populations in STEM fields are rarely trained to navigate the highly biased worlds in which most researchers end up working. In his presentation Co-PI Medina discussed how biases operate in scientific settings and argued that our immediate goal should not be to eliminate biases but to fearlessly and effectively identify and learn to deal with them. Through a conversational format at the end of his presentation, the Co-PI discussed with the audience the challenges UTRGV and underrepresented students, generally, may face when joining STEM fields in mostly white institutions and created awareness about our USDA grant which ultimately aims to provide underrepresented students with tools and a community of practice aimed to allow them to thrive when underrepresented in STEM institutions. Finally, recruitment at PVAMU relied on both virtual and in-classroom meetings. The virtual meetings targeted students in the Honors Program, which is led by our collaborator Dr. Quincy Moore; separately, we visited eight classrooms and met with four faculty members in College of Agriculture and Human Sciences and College of Arts and Sciences. Changes/Problems:As noted above, the project was initiated 31 March 2021 while COVID restrictions on our campus were still in place, and students were not accepted for summer 2021 (which began in late May 2021). Additionally, only three students were accepted into our program in summer 2022 (we projected an average of nine students per year). Thus, the rate of expenditure and the project's progress are below our planned progress. We will bring the project to its anticipated expenditure rate and progress through the changes we outlined above. Our project goals, expected outcomes, and methods/protocols remain unchanged. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students participating in our REEU program are immersed in training activities through ownership of and hands-on engagement in personal research projects in their host labs. Indeed, two students submitted titles for poster presentations at a national scientific meeting to be held in fall 2022, and all three students will be presenting posters at our campus' REU symposium in early August 2022. Similarly, the students are engaged in professional development activities through workshops and weekly discussions on scientific research methods led by project PIs, in addition to activities in their host labs and college- and university-wide activities for REU students. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?As noted above, students were not recruited for summer 2021 because of COVID restrictions. However, we have been and continue to reach out to our collaborators at the participating universities to keep them abreast of project developments. [The current student cohort (i.e., summer 2022) will be disseminating their research results at the TAMU REU Research Symposium in to be held on campus in early August 2022, as well as at national scientific meetings in fall 2022 and spring 2023.] What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We are satisfied with our project to date in accomplishing our project goals, except for the smaller than anticipated size of our first summer's cohort (2022). Our discussions of the causes for the small number of participating students pointed to two areas that we plan on improving upon for the summer 2023 program. First, we began in-person recruiting in early March 2022. We did not recruit in the fall semester or earlier in the spring semester because we were advised by collaborators at three campuses that COVID restrictions on in-person teaching would remain in effect until the spring semester's third week (mid-February), and that classes would be delivered in hybrid format (i.e., simultaneously available in in-person and virtual formats, so with uncertain numbers of students in classrooms). Second, we did not recruit at one of the four participating universities. The project collaborator at the university did not respond to repeated email messages and telephone calls requesting opportunities for meeting with and recruiting students in person and virtually; likewise, messages and calls to administrators in various university offices were not returned. To overcome these issues, we plan on: (i) begin recruiting in late fall semester 2022 and continue into early spring semester 2023, both through in-classroom and virtual sessions; and, (ii) beginning in early fall semester 2022 find a new project collaborator through in-person visits at the unresponsive university, while recruiting an additional (HBCU) collaborating university. Recruiting will be greatly facilitated by the connections made with faculty instructors and identification of courses in which students were most responsive, based on their participation during our visits and subsequently via email and telephone. We have begun conversations with potential new collaborator (HBCU) universities in Texas, and will have identified the most promising (additional) collaborator by end of summer 2022, in time for recruiting efforts in fall 2022. With these changes we are confident that our project's progress will be accelerated, and that we will meet our project's goals by the end of its period.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Our project's expected impacts are to (i) broaden the opportunities for underrepresented students from Texas HSIs and HBCUs to engage in research and training activities at an R1 Research university, and (ii) increase the presence of highly qualified, underrepresented graduates in the STEM labor force and competitive graduate programs. In addition, we aim to provide underrepresented students with a conceptual framework that can help them navigate the often-difficult transition from mostly Black and Hispanic institutions into the mostly White STEM work force. Presently, we can report in part on the first expected impact. COVID-related restrictions on our campus and research laboratories through summer 2021 (in addition to a project start date, 31 March 2021, near the projected start of summer activities in late May 2021) precluded activities involving students in summer 2021. However, in summer 2022 we hosted three underrepresented students recruited from project-collaborator campuses. These students were placed in faculty laboratories conducting research at the cutting edges of their disciplines, and their 10-week program ends in early August 2022. Thus far it is clear from interactions with the students (two female, one male; all three African American) during weekly meetings with Project PIs that they are benefitting from their research experiences, e.g., gaining research skills and identifying interests in graduate education and areas of employment. We are unable to report on the second expected impact because students of the first cohort (summer 2022) are projected to graduate in 2023 or 2024. Our project's objectives are to: (i) Provide experiential learning opportunities to academically qualified, underrepresented, undergraduates from Texas HSIs and HBCUs; (ii) train students in the scientific method; (iii) empower students to successfully pursue STEM-intensive careers through hands-on participation in scientific research and workshops on creative and analytical thinking, and justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI); and, (iv) create a sustained, student community of practice of science. With the first cohort of students (summer 2022) we have begun accomplishing our four objectives. As noted above, three underrepresented undergraduate students were recruited, are hosted in faculty research laboratories, are being mentored for success in STEM-intensive careers in those laboratories and by Project PIs, and with the Project PIs have begun establishing a community of practice of science. Changes in action and condition are evident at the project's presently early stage. Changes in action are evident as the students' application of fundamental and applied knowledge in their research projects, their acquisition of new skills, and use existing information in research publications. As well, changes in condition are evident in that the students are acquiring skills, knowledge, and experiences that will make them better qualified applicants to graduate programs or to employment opportunities.
Publications
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