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Mentoring across difference and distance: building effective virtual research opportunities for underrepresented minority undergraduate students in biological sciences.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are established to provide platforms for interest in scientific research and as tools for eventual matriculation to scientific graduate programs. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of in-person programs for 2020 and 2021, creating the need for alternative programming. The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP) was created to provide a virtual option to REUs in microbiology to compensate for the pandemic-initiated loss of research opportunities. Although in-person REUs have since been restored, NSURP currently remains an option for those unable to travel to in-person programs in the first place due to familial, community, and/or monetary obligations. This study examines the effects of the program's first 3 years, documenting the students' experiences, and suggests future directions and areas of study related to the impact of virtual research experiences on expanding and diversifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

SUBMITTER: Knox CJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10790749 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mentoring across difference and distance: building effective virtual research opportunities for underrepresented minority undergraduate students in biological sciences.

Knox Corey J CJ Ab Latif Faqryza M FM Cornejo Natasha R NR Johnson Michael D L MDL

mBio 20231212 1

<h4>Importance</h4>Summer Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REUs) are established to provide platforms for interest in scientific research and as tools for eventual matriculation to scientific graduate programs. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of in-person programs for 2020 and 2021, creating the need for alternative programming. The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP) was created to provide a virtual option to REUs in microbiology to compen ...[more]

PMID: 38085040

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Dataset Information

Mentoring across difference and distance: building effective virtual research opportunities for underrepresented minority undergraduate students in biological sciences.

Importance

Publications

Mentoring across difference and distance: building effective virtual research opportunities for underrepresented minority undergraduate students in biological sciences.

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