“The opportunity for students to work closely with a faculty mentor, on a research project spanning two years, will serve as a springboard for students to pursue careers involving scientific research in biological sciences,” said Professor Matthew Johnson, chairman of the Department of Wildlife and member of the Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program in the Biological Sciences.
Professor Bruce O’Gara from the Department of Biological Sciences is the principle investigator for the grant. For O’Gara, the chance for students to explore new ways of learning inspired him to pursue the grant.
“Working with the students is probably the most satisfying thing, watching their growth as you work with them. You get somebody who’s not sure what they know and you see them develop the confidence to say, ‘Yeah I can do this.’”
The program is designed for Latin-American and Native-American students who are interested in earning a degree in the biologically related sciences.
The goal of the program is to help them develop the tools they need in their chosen fields, and encourage and prepare them to apply to graduate programs.
Selected students will enter the program during the summer 2010 and begin two years of course work, which will include three research projects in the first semester. While working on these projects, students will work closely with three different faculty members. At the end of the summer semester, each student will choose a mentor for the remainder of the two years in the program.
Students must be sophomores or juniors to be eligible.
As for his ultimate goal for the program, O’Gara said, “What I’m hoping is that the students realize that they can do real science, and that they go on and contribute to society by producing some good science.”
Johnson said he is excited to offer unique research opportunities to studentswho might not yet know what they want to do in college.
“Maybe it will be warblers in Jamaica or woodpeckers in redwood forests, or rodents and owls in the Sierra Nevada, or birds and insects near Mono Lake. Whatever the students are interested in, this will be a great chance to really get involved in all phases of research, from project design to data collection, to analysis, to interpretation, write-up and dissemination.”
For more information about Undergraduate Research Mentoring, go to humboldt.edu/~urm or contact Professor Bruce O’Gara at Bruce.OGara@humboldt.edu.