Saavedra-Sanchez, Luz, Matty, Molly, Peng, Fei-Xing, Ramos, Nicole, Haghani, Nadia, Garland, Danielle, Kyllians, Emmanuella, Olowokudejo, Adeola
[
International Worm Meeting,
2021]
The Covid-19 pandemic caused profound impacts on many, if not all, aspects of STEM research and learning for undergraduate students. One of particular interest is the loss of an already difficult thing to maintain in a classroom setting: engagement. To promote engagement with peers, mentors, and science in the summer of 2020, I designed Virtual Active Science Engagement (VASE) as a semi-structured mentoring and peer-networking program for a few undergraduates from across the USA for 8 weeks. VASE is now in its third term and over 25 meeting sessions. Growing from just six students to over forty, VASE students are globally distributed across seven different time zones: many students are first-generation in STEM or from other communities historically underrepresented in STEM. VASE students range in age from 16 to 24 (late high school to post baccalaureate) with career goals ranging from nanoengineering and parasitology to many fields of medicine and biomedical research. My objective was to provide a space for students to engage in small peer-network group discussions to explore science as a career, identify opportunities for research experiences, and gain confidence to visualize themselves as scientists. VASE meetings highlight the diversity of careers and paths into STEM with invited guest speakers while guided discussions unveil the hidden curriculum of academic science. Discussion topics have included how to read a scientific research article, find funded research projects, and give a scientific talk or journal club presentation. VASE students are also encouraged to participate in Virtual Itty Projects (VIPs). VIPs are brief, hands-on projects with the purpose of providing students with real research experiences and deeper understanding of how research is conducted. VIPs are performed alongside volunteer scientists (like you!), who donate a few hours of their time to train undergraduates in a useful scientific skill. Here I present one VIP, in which a dozen undergraduate students learned how to use ImageJ to analyze C. elegans cuticle integrity. We hypothesize that even a short period (<4 hours) of engagement with guided research projects will allow students to build confidence, expand their professional network, and hone their scientific interests. VASE is a virtual space for students to actively engage with motivated peers, compassionate guest speakers, an invested mentor, and the pursuit of science.