[LTER-education] Fwd: [Reu-geo] Overview of REU plans and needs
Marty Downs
downs at nceas.ucsb.edu
Mon Apr 13 08:52:21 PDT 2020
Dear REU coordinators and LTER education managers--
I'm sharing the email below (with Valerie's permission) because it's
relevant to some of our discussions about professional development
resources for virtual, delayed, (or cancelled?) REU programs. GEO
administers it's program separately from BIO, so all the details may not be
the same and you should always check in with your program officer, but it
seemed useful to know that a bunch of folks are thinking in the same
direction. I have offered to coordinate our efforts with others', if it's
useful.
Thanks, Marty
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Valerie Sloan via reu-geo <reu-geo at mailman.ucar.edu>
Date: Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 2:22 PM
Subject: [Reu-geo] Overview of REU plans and needs
To: GEO REU list <reu-geo at mailman.ucar.edu>
Good afternoon, REU troopers!
Thanks for the timely question, Bec. I'm curious to hear suggestions.
We had a good Drop In Zoom call this morning with nine of us, which allowed
for a good amount of back and forth. Following the calls and emails this
week, it's clear that there is a huge range of constraints, resources, and
plans in the REU community. Here's an overview:
*Deferring the REU or cancellations: *
Here are some examples:
1. One REU cancelled before they selected students so as to avoid
committing to students, and also to protect their mentors, all of whom are
teaching intensive courses this summer and have to move them online.
2. One REU canceled because projects were based on international field
experience, and another because running a distributed program across a
dozen campuses was infeasible.
3. One REU canceled because the institution closed all summer programs.
This REU is deferring the 2020 program to next year. In 2021 they will be
able to host a double cohort (2020, 2021) because they have extra housing
and 60 mentors to choose from. As they will not be impacting the 2021
cohort, they will be allowed to invite the selected rising seniors back
next year, if those students are able.
*Moving the REU fully online, with research (at least to start with)*
- PIs/managers have been checking in with mentors to scope out their
availability. Mentor responses have varied from being nervous or hesitant
about going online to being committed to working with students and figuring
something out.
- Some programs are doing more intensive technical trainings at the
outset (e.g. Excel, statistics, R, ArcGIS, Python, or geo-content) in order
to lighten the load of the mentors and provide skills that both the
students and mentors crave.
- Some REUs are pairing *students* (or having 3-4 on a project) to
provide community, reduce isolation, and teach collaboration.
- Some REUs are pairing *mentors* on a project in the event that one
gets ill with Coronavirus
- People are eager to hear about others' models for doing this (zoom
calls will be organized)
- There are a lot of questions about how much time the students should
have to be on Zoom calls, with best practices suggesting that it be kept to
a minimum. If the goal is to prepare students for working independently in
graduate school, they will need that experience with some guidance and
check-ins.
*Professional Development*
- People are debating the impact and value of a one-week PD (e.g. with 2
x 2 hr sessions per day) versus 2 hours per week for eight weeks.
- A lot of questions exist about how to run elevator speeches, etc.,
over Zoom in breakout groups.
- People suggested having panels with grad students, people in the
private sector, etc. to share careers, and science talks.
- How will we share resources?
- How much are people paying students for doing only professional
development this summer and not research (e.g. 1/2 stipend? 1/3? all of
it?). In principle, might it be possible to get a supplement to help cover
this or next year's costs?
*What are some best practices for running an REU online?*
- Has this ever been done before? What resources are out there?
- What is known about how much guidance/time on Zoom is helpful and how
much is too much?
- What are good platforms to use?
- What are best practices for mentoring online?
- What tools can support student connection? e.g. Slack channels. Can we
ask the students for ideas.
- What are some cohort-building techniques? (Young people already do
this very well!)
- What are other programs doing, such as GSA or NOAA? (will invite
speakers to calls)
*Running an REU or Professional Development during a Pandemic*
*Aka 'an era of disruption"*
- How much work is reasonable to expect during a pandemic? What are the
pressures and stresses that students are feeling?
- What are the pressures that our mentors are facing, and how much can
we ask of them?
-
- How much time should be provided/allowed for the student (or mentor)
to keep mentally healthy, to take care of family, and other things?
- How many hours are reasonable to expect? Should they be counted?
Should we think differently about this, e.g. in terms of tasks versus
hours, or general chunks of pay for certain types of participation? (In
this weird period, time is a strange thing to measure).
- The Program Manager for a similar program in Canada wrote: "*We're
encouraging all projects to be done remotely as much as possible. In some
cases this will mean the student is performing a literature review or
analyzing older data, which is maybe less exciting than what they had
planned, but we still feel it's a valuable introduction to academic
research. We've also committed to honouring the full value of our portion
of the award and the minimum university top-up (~25%), even if the work
term is shortened."*
*Funding thoughts:*
1. Moving money between categories in the award: Money is allowed to be
moved around in a grant except for moving it out of Participant Support.
In that case, check with your NSF PO for permission. Some REUs are
providing students with an extra stipend (e.g. from saved housing costs)
that can be used for office furniture, day care, housing, or internet
access, e.g. $2,500 was mentioned.
2. Question: If I pay students a partial stipend this summer to
participate in professional development and they come on-site next year,
will I have to pay them less next year? Is seeking a supplement a
possibility?
- Please contact your NSF Program Officer about questions like these.
*Drop In Zoom Calls: *
Next week, we will host Drop In Zoom calls when we can discuss these
topics. There have been requests to separate out the calls focusing on
models of hosting a full REU with research online and on teaching
professional development. It seems like the topics of best practices and
operating in the age of a pandemic should be included in both of those
calls.
*Photo of the day:*
This came in from East Boothbay Harbor, Maine (where my grandad did marine
research) from David Fields today. WOW! Is that a foot of snow? We have
sun and heat here in Boulder, but snow is coming on the weekend.
Happy Easter and Happy Spring!
Val
[image: fields-snow.jpeg]
_______________________________________________
reu-geo mailing list
reu-geo at mailman.ucar.edu
http://mailman.ucar.edu/mailman/listinfo/reu-geo
--
Marty Downs (she/her/hers)
Director, LTER Network Office
https://lternet.edu
t: @USLTER
f: USLTER
National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS)
University of California, Santa Barbara
Office: 805-893-7549
Cell: 617-833-7930
downs at nceas.ucsb.edu
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