Summary, Guiding Question #3

How can we create and support opportunities for undergraduate research involving scientific ocean drilling data / samples?

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Figure 5: Example of two undergraduate students who used legacy core material for research projects, and who were then supported to present their results at a national conference. Image courtesy of Denise Kulhanek.

Provenance: Adriane Lam, SUNY at Binghamton
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Note: This question focused specifically on the undergraduate level, which includes both two-year and 4-year programs at colleges and universities. '2YC' = two year colleges (i.e., community colleges). 4YC = four year colleges and universities. Some 4YC also have graduate programs. Pre-college (kindergarten to high school, K-12) education is addressed in guiding question #1, #2, and #4 on building awareness, curriculum development, and teacher professional development, respectively.

Values and Priorities

• Deliberate attention to 2YC and 4YC education initiatives can help build a stronger and more diverse team of scientific ocean drilling scientists by increasing awareness of, skills for, and pathways to our research fields. The undergraduate student body is more diverse than both the current graduate student population or the current community of scientific ocean drilling researchers. Historically, the undergraduate level has generally not been a priority targeted audience by USSSP-funded scientific ocean drilling program broader impact activities. Rather, focus has been on graduate-level research, general audience engagement, or middle / high school programs teacher education/curriculum development (e.g., School of Rock). Nevertheless, there are successful independently-funded and/or low-cost models for engaging undergraduates in research involving scientific ocean drilling data / samples (see presentations). 
• There is broad interest among participants in creating and supporting opportunities for undergraduate research involving scientific ocean drilling data / samples at both the early undergraduate (first two years) and more advanced levels (3rd and 4th years). This includes support for putting more materials and funding towards undergraduate research (e.g., Figure 5). 

Recommended Tools and/or Strategies

• Create and support a formal network. Such a network for scientists / faculty and students in the undergraduate research community in scientific ocean drilling will help with resource-sharing, mentoring, etc. 
• Support and expand existing SciOD data management and repository efforts for undergraduate research. Data is already open access, and sample requests can already be made for education projects. Continue this practice and expand support for it (e.g., tutorials and workshops for how to access and use data; how to make sample requests; how to select sites and cores for sampling).
• Have some cores dedicated for educational use. Two potential methods (1) conduct a census of legacy cores and focus on areas and intervals that have not received previous attention; (2) collect a piston core as a routine practice for all expeditions for education use. Potential models for this use of cores is the JR100 program, and some expeditions from the STEMSEAS program.
• Organize professional development workshops for scientists and undergraduate faculty on successful instructional models (methods) and materials (data and samples) for mentored undergraduate research. Three potential models: (1) course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), (2) individual  research projects; and (3) summer grant-funded research programs (e.g., scientific ocean drilling program REUs). 
• Facilitate collaborations / partnerships between institutions with research labs (e.g., R1, well funded 4YC, government) and 2YC-4YC programs without such labs. Provide funding to create Schlanger-style fellowships for undergraduate students to work in the labs of IODP scientists (internship-like experiences, with graduate student and faculty mentors). 

Challenges

• Funding and resources need to be identified to support these efforts.
• Resource organization and user-friendly access will also need to be addressed.
• Possible confusion in the community about what efforts are program (USSSP) funded vs what efforts are independently funded /community developed.