Three events for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students will occur at this year’s Fall Meeting.
The Bright Students Training as Research Scientists (Bright STaRS) program provides middle and high school students who have participated in summer research projects with a dedicated forum to present their research results to the geoscience community. This year, up to 150 students from the San Francisco Bay area and beyond are expected to participate in the Bright STaRS poster session, which will be held on Thursday, 18 December, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in the Moscone South poster hall.
The AGU Fall Meeting also provides undergraduate students with the chance to present their research. The Undergraduate Earth, Atmospheric, Ocean, and Space Science Research and Outreach Showcase will feature completed and ongoing projects that are first-authored and presented by college students. The session, which will be held on Wednesday, 17 December, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:20 p.m. in the Moscone South poster hall, is cosponsored by the Council on Undergraduate Research’s Geoscience Division, the Research Experiences for Undergraduates Program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences, UNAVCO’s Research Experiences in Solid Earth Science for Students (RESESS) Program, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research’s Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) Program, and AGU.
The Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Success in Earth System Sciences (MS PHD’S) program provides networking, mentoring, and professional development opportunities to undergraduate and graduate students from underrepresented groups who are pursuing geoscience careers. AGU supports this NSF- and NASA-funded program by covering Fall Meeting registration costs for MS PHD’S student attendees. New student members of the MS PHD’S program will give a short presentation that highlights their academic background, research experiences, and professional goals, after which they will receive feedback from peers and mentors on their professional presentation skills. These presentations will take place on Sunday, 14 December, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Moscone South Mezzanine, rooms 224–226.
The AGU Fall Meeting is an opportunity for students to see current geoscience research and to meet other students and scientists with similar interests. Networking, research presentation, and mentoring opportunities offered to students at the Fall Meeting help them to develop as scientists and to engage with others in their discipline.
The Bright STaRS poster session, the designated undergraduate poster session, and MS PHD’S presentations are open to all meeting attendees, so please stop by to meet the students and learn about their research projects.
If you’d like to go a step further in helping young scientists, consider being a mentor. Mentoring can provide much-needed support and guidance at critical decision points in students’ careers, and through mentorship you can influence the future scientists of your field.
To find out more about mentoring and about education and public outreach programs at the AGU Fall Meeting and throughout the year, visit http://education.agu.org/.
—Kara Gadeken, Intern, Education and Public Outreach, AGU; email: kgadeken@agu.org
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved.
© 2014. American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved.