OCEAN EDUCATION • Virtual and Remote—Hands-On Undergraduate Research in Plankton Ecology During the 2020 Pandemic: COVID-19 Can’t Stop This!

Abstract

The pandemic has had innumerable impacts on the oceanographic community, including on summer research internship programs that expose undergraduates to diverse career paths in oceanography while immersed in an active laboratory. For many students, these internships are formative in their career choices. The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship in Oceanography (SURFO) at the University of Rhode Island’s Graduate School of Oceanography is one of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs that proceeded remotely during the summer of 2020. Here, we highlight one project that, although remote, maintained a hands-on research experience focused on quantitative skill building. The pandemic forced the REU advisors to identify key learning goals and ensure their safe delivery, given the circumstances. Although all participants agreed that in-person instruction would have been preferable, we were pleased that we did not let a virus halt essential oceanographic research training.