Program Activities

As part of the Research Fellows program, students participate in activities that foster an appreciation for the research-to-outreach connection that is an integral component of Maryland Sea Grant’s mission. Students are required to participate in five special activities over the course of their two-year fellowship. These activities are intended to enhance students’ formal academic education by catalyzing new ways of thinking and capitalizing upon the strengths and capabilities of Maryland Sea Grant. The activities are:

• Welcome Luncheon for Fellows at Maryland Sea Grant, College Park
• Mid-Year Program – Academic Symposium and/or Communication Workshop
• Maryland Sea Grant Outreach Contribution
• Summer Seminar Series – Horn Point Laboratory and Chesapeake Biological Laboratory
• Annual Progress Report
  

Welcome Luncheon for Fellows

The Welcome Luncheon for Fellows introduces the Fellows to each other, to Sea Grant, and to Sea Grant’s outreach mission of transferring science to a broader non-specialist audience. During a luncheon held at the Maryland Sea Grant office in College Park, Maryland, an alumnus of the Maryland Sea Grant Research Fellow program will present a talk on his/her research.

Mid-Year Program - Academic Symposium and/or Communication Workshop

Fellows Summer Symposium 2003	PAT Grad Students Symposium 2005

The mid-year program alternates every other year between an academic symposium, in which students present their own research, and a communications workshop developed by Maryland Sea Grant staff, in which students learn skills for communicating technical information to a lay audience. Both programs are also attended by visiting summer undergraduate students who are part of Maryland Sea Grant's "Research Experiences for Undergraduates" (REU) program, funded by the National Science Foundation. The location of these events alternates between the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's two marine labs, Horn Point Laboratory in Cambridge, Maryland and Chesapeake Biological Laboratory in Solomons, Maryland. Subsequent to the academic symposium Maryland Sea Grant publishes the abstracts in a printed volume and makes this volume available on the web. Click on the links at right to read program summaries from two of these symposia.

Outreach Contribution to a Sea Grant Publication

Sea Grant Fellows participating in the outreach and writing workshop are encouraged to submit a writing piece for placement in a Maryland Sea Grant publication or on the Sea Grant website. This contribution might include writing a piece for our magazine Chesapeake Quarterly or other outreach materials. Fellows work closely with writers in the Communications group at Sea Grant to develop, edit, and submit a piece about their research or a related topic. To see an example of a writing project by a Fellow, see "How Old Is That Crab?", an article written by Brandon Puckett for an issue of our magazine, Chesapeake Quarterly.

Summer Seminar Series

Current and former Research Fellows at the Horn Point and Chesapeake Biological Laboratories are asked to help organize a summer seminar series for the REU students and the greater laboratory community at each lab. Research Fellows schedule four to five seminars and organize a lunch discussion following the talks. This is an opportunity for the Fellows to invite speakers of interest and to further engage the REU students with the marine lab communities.

Annual Progress Report

In December of the first year of the award, Maryland Sea Grant requests the student and PI submit a brief progress report. Based upon satisfactory progress and participation in programmatic activities, a Fellow will be renewed for the second year of the project. Sea Grant may decline to renew a fellowship if there is clear evidence that the goals of the program are not being achieved. At the end of the support period, the Fellow and the PI must submit a final report summarizing their accomplishments over the previous two years.