skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Title: The ASLO Multicultural Program Pioneers Diversity Efforts in the Aquatic Sciences
The Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Multicultural Program (ASLOMP) began in 1990 as an effort to diversify participation in the aquatic sciences, with particular emphasis on increasing the number of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) in the field (Cuker, 2001, 2005, 2007). It was evident to anyone attending an ASLO meeting, or that of any other aquatic scientific society in the 1980s that BIPOC were essentially absent. The ranks of related academicians, agency workers, and students mirrored that absence of diversity. This was consistent with data gathered by the National Science Foundation (NSF) indicating that only 3% of doctorates earned in 1990 in the Earth, atmospheric, and ocean sciences were earned by underrepresented minorities (NSF, 1994). Acting on this information, the ASLO leadership constructed a program that would bring diverse students interested in the aquatic sciences to its annual meetings for special programming aimed at recruiting and retaining BIPOC in the aquatic and allied sciences and applied to NSF for funding.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2231647
PAR ID:
10544048
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Corporate Creator(s):
Publisher / Repository:
The Oceanography Society
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Oceanography
Volume:
36
Issue:
4
ISSN:
1042-8275
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. With grant support from the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Awards to Stimulate and Support Undergraduate Research Experiences (ASSURE) program funded by the Department of Defense (DoD) Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), we established a program intended to increase the number of underrepresented racial and ethnic minority (URM) and first-generation undergraduate students successfully applying to neuroscience and other STEM-related graduate programs. The Neuroscience Techniques and Research Training (NeuroSTART) Program aimed to increase the number of undergraduate students from the Memphis area involved in behavioral neuroscience research. In this two-semester program, students completed an empirical research project in a neuroscience lab, received individual mentoring from neuroscience faculty, became part of a STEM network, presented at research conferences, and attended specialized professional development seminars. In two cohorts of 15 students, 4 are PhD students in neuroscience-related programs or in medical school (27%), 4 are employed in neuroscience-related research facilities (27%), 3 are employed as clinical assistants (20%), and 1 is employed in the IT field (7%). The remaining three recently graduated and are planning a gap year prior to applying for admission to grad/medical school. The Memphis NeuroSTART program has provided valuable training to participants, making them competitive applicants for jobs in the health sciences and for admittance into graduate neuroscience programs. By providing this training to first-generation and URM students, the broader impact of this program was an increase in the diversity of the health sciences workforce, particularly those specializing in neuroscience-related research and treatment. 
    more » « less
  2. Abstract International research is necessary in aquatic sciences because water moves across borders. Historically, international collaborations have been useful in conducting oceanographic research programs, which span large distances and require several funding sources. Although valuable, international research can have unforeseen challenges to the unprepared researcher. Communication with an international collaborator and professional development training can mitigate these pitfalls. The Limnology and Oceanography Research Exchange Program (LOREX) is an opportunity for graduate students to gain experience developing international collaborations. The LOREX program aims to help graduate students develop connections and gain experience in international research. During the summer of 2019 and spring of 2020, 26 graduate students from 24 U.S. institutions will travel to one of six different host institutions to conduct a research project that they developed with an international collaborator. To prepare for their research experience, LOREX participants participated in training programs during the 2019 Aquatic Sciences Meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The first group of LOREX graduate students will share their experience through social media and blog posts throughout their journey. Applications are now open for the second cohort of LOREX participants, and potential applicants are encouraged to contact potential collaborators to develop a research project. 
    more » « less
  3. Lane College is a small, liberal arts, Historically Black College in Jackson, TN. The Division of Natural and Physical Sciences provides undergraduate research experiences for students majoring in biology, chemistry, computer science, mathematics, or physics. To increase inclusivity, all students within one of the five majors are encouraged to apply, regardless of GPA, classification, or previous research experience. This eight-week program features a bi-weekly professional development session and a symposium at the end of the program where students present their research findings. During the summer of 2023, seven biology students completed a metagenomics research study with the goal to explore the biodiversity of different local freshwater aquatic environments. The students collected water samples from four local ponds with metadata such as pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen, and GPS coordinates. Initial observations of aquatic life using microscopy and dichotomous keys were made. The DNA was extracted from the samples using ethanol precipitation followed by clean-up with the ZymoBIOMICS DNA Miniprep kit. DNA was amplified using the Nanopore Rapid PCR barcoding kit or the 16S PCR barcoding kit and sequenced with the Nanopore MinION Mk1C. DNA sequences were initially analyzed using the Nanopore Minnow and Epi2Me What's in My Pot Workflows. Each student explored the subsequent data to answer specific research questions about the biodiversity in each environment, such as the impact of pH, dissolved oxygen, whether the pond was static or free flowing, or the presence of different pathogenic or toxic microbes. Overall, they found that while there was some overlap, aquatic organisms varied in the ponds depending on whether the pond was static or free flowing, pH, dissolved oxygen, and location. Some of the students continued these research projects during the fall 2023 semester in the Biology Undergraduate Research course where they refined their research questions and analyzed the data using additional bioinformatics tools available on Galaxy. 
    more » « less
  4. Writing winning proposals for funding research is an essential skill for doctoral students in the social sciences. Still, most anthropology programs lack formal instruction on this, relying instead on informal mentorship. To advance this, we evaluated the Value Proposition framework in teaching anthropology Ph.D. students to write proposals. Our findings from the feedback from students and faculty in the NSF-funded Cultural Anthropology Methods Program (CAMP) offer insights for using this framework to bridge the proposal-writing gap in the training of cultural anthropologists. 
    more » « less
  5. This paper presents implementation details and findings of an NSF-funded S-STEM scholarship program consisting of many high-impact practices to recruit and retain students in the Physical Sciences and Mathematics programs, particularly first-generation and underrepresented minority students. In particular, we discuss how the program utilizes three key strategies to improve persistence and retention in a STEM pipeline including access to financial resources, community building, and faculty mentorship at critical transitions. While the rate of underrepresented minority (URM) students within the general Physical Sciences and Mathematics program on campus fluctuates at around 35%, this scholarship program recruits at a much higher rate of URM students at nearly 61%. Of the 44 students receiving support for at least one semester, 100% either graduated or continued with their original major, including students who discontinued from the program due to low GPA or lack of financial need. Among the program’s positive outcomes, students experienced increased motivation for success, and readiness for graduate studies or the workforce. 
    more » « less