REU Site: Making Waves: Science Communication and Interdisciplinary Ocean Research Experiences at USF, College of Marine Science

The University of South Florida will host a Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program at the College of Marine Science (CMS) campus located in St Petersburg, FL. The program will bring ten undergraduates to the CMS campus each summer for three years to participate in a 10-week internship. REU interns will have the opportunity to conduct research in a range of interdisciplinary topics, such as carbon cycling, geochemical signatures, marine biodiversity, marine biomedical research, and maritime navigation. Students will be recruited from a wide range of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) and non-STEM undergraduate majors, including engineering, computer science, mathematics, bio-medical, communications and education. This project is designed to better prepare undergraduates to conduct and communicate research. The REU will create an immersive ocean science program for 30 students with different academic backgrounds. It will expose, train, and educate students in the discipline of oceanographic research and Science Communication. Understanding integrative science and being able to communicate it is increasingly important in our society; the program will stress science literacy and communication as an integral part of the REU with dissemination of research projects through public channels. Furthermore, this project will recruit students from a wide range of majors and will encourage them to consider pursuing graduate school in STEM. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.