The PINEMAP Intern Program: Integrating undergraduates into forest resource and climate change research and education

Background/Question/Methods

The Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation Project is a coordinated agriculture project (CAP) recently awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). A major goal of this CAP is to use educational projects to integrate scientific disciplines and expand the science to students and educators. Our intern program is one of the projects meeting this education aim with a goal of engaging undergraduate interns in interdisciplinary research, education and, potentially, future graduate studies. Principle investigators and graduate students from across PINEMAP’s disciplinary areas were awarded grants to mentor and integrate into their research 6 paid interns from universities across the southeastern US for a summer. Interns later returned to their home institutions to share internship experiences and knowledge with local public school students. The interns are enrolled in a fall semester distance course functioning as a public communication class that focuses on creating and presenting inquiry-based lessons on forest resources and climate change targeting secondary school students. The Intern Program’s structure and format will be evaluated after the pilot year to better suit PINEMAP’s outreach mission as funds become available to support 12 and 18 interns for subsequent years.

Results/Conclusions

Integrating undergraduate interns in PINEMAP research with primary investigators and graduate mentors should better prepare undergraduates for graduate studies in forest resources programs. Undergraduate students gained experience with field and laboratory research, data analysis, and related forest resources methodologies during summer internships with mentors in their chosen PINEMAP disciplinary aim. Through the independent research distance course, undergraduates learn how to effectively communicate about forest resource and climate change issues as they create educational presentations. Lessons given in the fall semester will target state standards of learning objectives, and interns will use science education pedagogy to deliver their presentation to multiple classes. Secondary school students near interns’ home universities are able to participate in hands-on activities while learning about climate change impacts on forest resources identified through PINEMAP research. Interns will be invited to share their experiences in a poster session at the next PINEMAP annual meeting. The interdisciplinary nature of this internship program integrates multiple stakeholders to provide a learning experience that greatly improves research and teaching abilities for undergraduate interns.