What is a key way to build a stronger American scientific community for the future? Expanding learning opportunities to a wide range of interested learners now.
That goal is the foundation of a full science education program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources this summer.
The 10-week program, themed “Expanding Opportunities in Agricultural Science and Food Crop Innovation,” has brought together Husker scientists and private sector experts to provide a broad curriculum for select Nebraska and international college students. all the world. country. Project recruitment included historically black colleges and universities, including those created under the Second Morrill Act of 1890, to expand opportunities for underrepresented students in careers related to science and agriculture.
“We’ve learned how to better communicate science and how to think more scientifically and about the scientific method,” said Nathlita Karnley, a biology major at Fayetteville State University, an HBCU in North Carolina. “You really learn about science and the impact of your project. You learn how it is going to benefit society. It can also help you frame your business, if you want a business.”
Each student is mentored by a member of the IANR faculty. Karnley’s mentor is microbiologist Jennifer Auchtung, an assistant professor of food science and technology.
The US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a $742,000 grant to the university for the program, known as Research and Extension Experiences for Undergraduates. IANR will host the show for five summers. Six students will participate this summer and 46 will participate during the course of the program.
“Expanding the opportunities is really important,” said Ed Cahoon, the George W. Holmes Professor of Biochemistry and principal investigator on the project. “Many students, especially from HBCUs and 1890 land-grant colleges, may not have the opportunities that other students have to consider research as a career.”
For some of the students, this is their first opportunity for focused laboratory investigation, for example.
The country’s scientific community can benefit from working to remove some of the barriers to pursuing science as a career, said Cahoon, director of the Center for Innovation in Plant Sciences.
Students have had sessions on science literacy, research fundamentals, and science communication skills. Faculty and graduate students are leading guided lab experiences. Sessions explain the commercialization of research projects and entrepreneurship. Private sector experts describe science-focused employment opportunities in industry.
The program expands educational opportunities for “students who think they might be interested in doing research, going to graduate school, or having a career in agriculture and agricultural science,” said Amanda Ramer-Tait, Maxcy Professor of Agriculture and Agricultural Resources. Natural in the Department of Nebraska. Food Science and Technology. “I’m excited that we can provide these opportunities for students to find out if it’s something they’re passionate about.”
The sessions give students “tools to plan a path forward for themselves,” he said, “and give them the opportunity to see themselves as successful members of the agricultural science community.”
Ramer-Tait is a co-principal investigator for the program, along with Paul Velander, assistant professor of biochemistry and Nebraska Extension specialist.
“You’re really training students, both from the most fundamental level, in the wet lab space, how to think through a scientific lens, scientific literacy, but also guiding them to think clearly and pursue their interests,” Velander said. . “The program also gives them context about science, business and entrepreneurship.”
Students have learned about the commercialization of research and business dimensions from Tom Field, director of Engler’s Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program in Nebraska; Josh Nichol-Caddy, director of technology commercialization at the University of Nebraska Omaha School of Business Administration; and Matt Foley, program director at Invest Nebraska and program director at The Combine, an agricultural technology incubator.
Every Wednesday, students have lunches where industry experts describe science-focused careers in the private sector. At lunch, students toured the genomics labs at Neogen’s Lincoln facility.
Even if students don’t decide to pursue graduate science school, Velander said, the program helps them see the relevance of a strong scientific understanding in a wide range of professions.
In addition, Velander said, the program is helping IANR graduate students and postdoctoral researchers hone their tutoring skills while helping students.
Husker’s faculty sought the grant in part because the transdisciplinary collaboration between IANR departments and research centers provides promising opportunities for students to see the many connections between scientific disciplines. That discussion began, Ramer-Tait said, in the wake of the “many collaborations that faculty have on our campus that revolve around novel innovations with food crops and the eventual incorporation of those novel crops into novel food products that could benefit health.” human”.
The program, with its “Crop-to-Food Innovation” approach, is a collaboration between the Center for Plant Science Innovation, the Nebraska Center for Health Food, the Center for Food Innovation, and the Center for Agricultural Products. Industrial. The participating professors are from the departments of biochemistry, agronomy and horticulture, food science and technology, and biological systems engineering.
The summer sessions and lab experience, Cahoon said, are “designed to give students insight into where their food comes from, from cultivation through all the stages in between (bioprocessing, formulations, nutritional assessment) and, at the end, , how a novel food product can be developed and marketed”.
Dulcie Archuleta, a biology student at Nebraska Wesleyan University, has been encouraged by her lab work, with Ramer-Tait as her mentor.
“I enjoyed my lab so much that I am definitely considering graduate school at UNL,” Archuleta said. “I really like working in my lab and would like to come back, probably to continue my work.”
Gannon Cole, a chemistry major at West Virginia State University, an 1890 land-grant HBCU, said he intends to pursue graduate school and a science-related career.
“I know the value of research and internships that give you experience you wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Cole, whose mentor is Cahoon.
Such experience “can take you a long way, and that’s what many employers tend to look for in a person.”
The program has significant value in providing lab experience and connections to professors and experts, said Shane Rice, a biological engineering student at North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU. His program mentor is Ozan Ciftci, Kenneth E. Morrison Distinguished Professor of Food Engineering.
Other students in the program are Deuris Pena, a biochemistry major at Bloomfield College in New Jersey. His mentor is Thomas Clemente, Eugene W. Price Distinguished Professor of Biotechnology in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. WrayVauze Givens, an agricultural studies student at Lincoln University, an HBCU in Missouri, is mentored by Devin Rose, professor of food science and technology.
The wide range of topics covered in the sessions is important in giving students a well-rounded sense of modern scientific practice and research, Raimer-Tait said.
“We are training the next generation of scientists, and we want to train them to be outstanding scientists, but we also want them to be trained in business ideas and techniques, as well as comfortable communicating their science,” he said. “That is very important as we train the next generation.”
In short, Cahoon said, this project provides “a tremendous opportunity to impact the lives and careers of students and engage the broader diversity of people and ideas needed to solve global challenges.”
