Activities

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Ropes Challenge Course 2004 On the Ropes 2004 Poster Presentations	Program Outline The program begins with an orientation, a number of safety training sessions, and a Ropes Challenge as a "quick-fire" means to get to know one another. Student participants engage in an intense research experience throughout the summer, under the supervision of a faculty mentor, that typically requires at least 40 hours per week in the laboratory. Participants will be trained to address questions in various areas of basic biology utilizing techniques in molecular and cellular biology. Students will attend two weekly meetings: a "Career Development Workshop" and "Careers in Science Seminar Series". The first workshop strives to provide students with the tools to enhance oral and written communication skills. This is achieved through a weekly meeting during lunch (which is provided) at which time various skills and techniques are modeled. The second seminar series introduces students to a number of potential careers in science. This is done through off-campus mentoring events with departmental faculty. Throughout the summer, a number of social activites are organized to help students get acquainted with each other, with UTEP students and faculty, with the University, and with the surrounding area. The summer ends with the "End-of-the-Summer Symposium" where all summer program participants present their work in poster format. The entire university campus is invited as are family and friends of the student participants. A banquet honoring all summer REU participants follows the symposium.
Student Expectations Students must: - participate in all ten weeks of the program - attend all weekly meetings - attend all social activities Day one of the Program begins with a tour of the campus, orientation to the program, and a luncheon with mentors. During week one, students will obtain all the necesary Basic Lab Safety Training required to work in a research lab. Other focused training includes: How to Make Solutions (what's the math behind it?), How to Use PubMed, How to Maintain a Laboratory Notebook, Plagiarism, etc. Weeks two through four are dedicated to the development of the research project (developing a hypothesis and experimental design). By week five, students must submit their Research Proposal (Product #1). Week six is dedicated to writing a Research Abstract. During week seven, students must turn in their abstract (Product #2) that is to be used for applications to the SACNAS Conference. Weeks eight through ten are focused on finalizing experiments, data interpretation, and drawing conclusions from the data. By week ten, students must generate a Poster (Product #3) that is to be presented at the End-of-the-Summer Symposium and potentially at a regional or national meeting.