Marine STEM Education

Support Student Learning and Career Aspirations:

1. 1. Provide URM students with high-impact research opportunities that increase STEM identity, self-efficacy, and career aspirations.
   2. Develop and distribute resources to support student success, including intern resource guides and access to specialized training.

Expand Mentorship Capacity

1. 1. Formalize and expand MarSci-LACE Mentorship Development Workshops (MDWs) with a focus on culturally responsive practices.
   2. Equip mentors with tools and resources to continuously adapt their approaches to meet the evolving needs of diverse student populations.

Facilitate Institutional Adoption of Best Practices

1. 1. Create and share resources, including workshop modules, mentoring plans, and support tools, that can be adopted and adapted by LSAMP institutions and other STEM organizations.
   2. Encourage and support the institutionalization of practices proven to improve URM student outcomes in STEM.

Promote Evidence-Based Decision Making

1. 1. Conduct rigorous analyses of the impacts of mentorship and research experiences on URM students, including career retention and STEM identity.
   2. Publish and disseminate findings to guide future STEM education and mentorship practices.

Engage and Empower a Broader Community

1. 1. Increase access to mentoring and research opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds through expanded partnerships.
   2. Develop community-based programs and initiatives to foster engagement with STEM education and research at multiple levels.

Allow for Expansion into Emerging Areas of Research

1. 1. Provide a flexible framework to incorporate new research themes and methodologies, such as data science, climate resilience, and interdisciplinary STEM collaborations.
   2. Promote innovation in STEM education and research practices by integrating emerging technologies and approaches.

MML’s Community-engaged STEM Education Program (C-STEM) empowers over 10,000 participants annually by providing high-quality, marine-based STEM education through innovative educational and community partnerships. Since its inception in 2014, developed in collaboration with alternative schools and community-serving organizations, C-STEM has inspired a passion for STEM and the marine environment among youth in Sarasota, Manatee and other local Counties by bringing science directly to them. The program focuses on engaging underrepresented and underserved students, leveraging MML’s world-class marine research to offer dynamic, interactive learning experiences. By providing access to authentic, informal learning, MML addresses educational inequities and nurtures curiosity through age-appropriate lesson plans and activities designed to make science accessible and exciting for young students and non-traditional learners.

The Mote Undergraduate Research Experience (URE) offers undergraduate students a fully immersive, hands-on opportunity to engage in marine science research under the mentorship of Mote scientists. This program equips participants with practical research skills, science communication abilities, and career development tools through active involvement in scientific projects, seminars, and workshops. Aimed at broadening participation among historically underserved and underrepresented groups in marine STEM, the program fosters an inclusive environment that welcomes students of all backgrounds. Graduates of the program leave with enhanced knowledge, valuable experience, and strong professional networks, well-prepared for future careers or advanced studies in marine science.

The Mote Marine Laboratory Research Apprenticeship Program (Mote RAP) offers a one-year intensive, fully immersive experience designed to equip participants with the essential skills and certifications needed to excel as laboratory technician scientists in the Marine Biology research field. This program addresses a pivotal moment when many recent marine STEM graduates struggle to find employment, aiming to retain them in the field. By increasing the representation of underrepresented scientists in marine biology research, Mote RAP fosters new opportunities for employing and retaining diverse young scientists within the research field and at Mote Marine Laboratory specifically.

Mote Aquarium Sciences Apprenticeships (Mote ASAP) offer young professionals with prior aquarium internship experience the opportunity to gain advanced husbandry skills across a wide range of taxa at an AZA (Association of Zoos and Aquariums)-accredited facility. Apprentices will benefit from invaluable experiential learning and mentorship from a dedicated team of Aquarium Husbandry staff members, including a Senior Aquarium Biologist. Addressing the lack of racial and socioeconomic diversity in the animal husbandry field, and within Mote Aquarium’s staff, volunteers, and college internship participants, Mote ASAP aims to lower financial barriers to gaining essential experience for entry-level animal care roles. The program strives to develop highly competitive candidates for positions at Mote and within the broader aquarium and zoo industry, while creating new opportunities to employ and retain diverse young scientists in the animal care field.

The Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation: Marine Science Laboratory Alliance Center of Excellence (LSAMP/MarSci-LACE) (NSF Grant #1922351) serves as a “nexus” training, resource, and supporting partner to other IMRIs, degree granting institutions, LSAMP students, and science mentors and faculty. The mission of the Center is to increase the number and preparedness of historically marginalized students earning undergraduate degrees in marine/ocean sciences and related natural resource fields. The vision of the LSAMP MarSci-LACE is to develop and implement a new Center paradigm for increasing student participation and success in marine STEM-related careers, beyond that provided by traditional degree granting institutions. The long-term goal of MarSci-LACE is to identify the value, and leverage unique and authentic research and training opportunities hands-on research experiences can provide  proposal’s target population students, creating resources and developing best practices to be shared widely among students, faculty and staff to improve academic and career retention and success in the marine sciences. 

The Broadening Impacts MarSci-LACE (BrIm MarSci-LACE)  (NSF Grant #1922351)mentor development model through the formalization, broad distribution and post workshop impacts analyses of BrIm MarSci-LACE Mentor Development Workshops (MDW) for mentors of undergraduate research experiences. Given the overwhelming evidence of the impact of strong mentorship, particularly for students from historically marginalized populations, there is an increasing demand for demonstrated high-quality and innovative mentor trainings and materials that are easily implemented and appropriate for mentors of every level. This is especially critical in fields like marine sciences where the vast majority of mentors are from non-minority populations. The goal of this project is to increase the number of trained UREs mentors, particularly in marine STEM but also available to the broader community, via BrIm MarSci-LACE that will: develop a new training module on culturally responsive mentorship. facilitate the MDW to organizations, institutions, and individuals engaged in or preparing to be undergraduate intern mentors, particularly those within marine STEM and the LSAMP community, collect research on mentor perceptions of MDW (i.e., effectiveness, usefulness, comprehensiveness), as well as shifts in mentorship factors (i.e., confidence, mentorship skill improvement) and practices (i.e., utilization of resources, use of skills), develop and implement train-the-trainer workshops to facilitate broader implementation,  and catalyze a broader community of practice around effective mentorship within marine sciences.

The Marine Science Undergraduate Research Experience Professional and Research Preparation  (MarSci-URE PReP) IUSE:EDU  (NSF Grant #2315432) project aims to develop, implement and evaluate an undergraduate research experience preparation course for undergraduate students to develop research and science career skills, and obtain hands-on experience doing marine science research under the mentorship of professional scientists, all the while building their affective science skills (e.g., science identity, sense of belonging, confidence and self-efficacy). Students will gain essential knowledge and aptitudes that they may not have the opportunity to obtain during their academic undergraduate education alone, thereby increasing their perceived readiness, competitiveness in applying for and success in future undergraduate research experiences. This project aims to develop a transferrable and scalable model for undergraduate research preparation programming that will increase the number and preparedness of students from historically excluded populations participating in undergraduate research experiences. The overall goal of this project is to increase the number and preparedness of students from historically excluded populations earning undergraduate degrees in marine STEM to meet the increasing national demands for a highly skilled, diverse and innovative STEM workforce.

The primary goal of GEOPAths Informal Network Vocational Experiences and Research Training in Marine Science (GP-IN:VERT)  (NSF Grant #2325316) is to increase the number of pre-college students pursuing undergraduate degrees in marine STEM. This will be accomplished through engaging students primarily from historically excluded groups in authentic, marine geoscience career-relevant experiences; providing access to students that might otherwise not encounter geoscience before deciding on a major; and creating mechanisms to engage local high school students in experiences that demonstrate the geosciences as a viable career path. Each year of the three-year GP-IN:VERT will include a school-year afterschool program and a summer two-week immersive experience to increase high school student: awareness of marine STEM career opportunities in marine science; understanding of marine STEM career pathways, including undergraduate programs; self-efficacy, sense of belonging, science identity in marine STEM settings; feeling of social support through participation in a learning ecosystem-based program; and confidence in pursuing undergraduate programs and careers in marine STEM.