National Science Foundation's Geoscience Research Experience for Undergraduates Sites: Demographics, Trends, and COVID Impacts

The National Science Foundation (NSF) funds efforts to broaden the participation of minoritized students across Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. However, the geosciences still lack diversity within research and academia, having the lowest diversity of all the STEM fields at all higher education levels [National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics, 2015]. As part of an effort to increase the number of students from minoritized groups in the geosciences, the Directorate for Geosciences follows the demographics of Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) students to analyze and learn from trends about student selection within the program. In 2020, the world faced a global pandemic that caused nearly all academic institutions to either close their doors or create a virtual environment for their students, impacting the REU programs. A year later, the global pandemic continued to impact academic institutions, but engaging students in research was a priority. In 2021, we began to see an increase in the number of positions available for REU students, exceeding the number of 2020s participants by 40%. An assessment of REU sites in the Geosciences shows REU students had the opportunity to attend programs operating virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid format. Some REU sites also admitted students in 2021 who had been accepted in 2020 but had not participated due to the pandemic. However, despite the large increase in the number of available positions in 2021, there was no significant increase in the participation of students from Minority Serving Institutions (MSI). Trends show that the number of student participants from MSIs in 2021 is similar to the number of student participants in 2020. Further analysis is needed to understand why more students were not admitted from MSIs; however, the data suggest that increasing outreach at community colleges and MSIs should be a priority for Geoscience REU sites.