IRES Track I: Immersive Undergraduate Research in the Galapagos as a Tool for Building URM STEM Careers

IRES 轨道 I：加拉帕戈斯沉浸式本科生研究作为建立 URM STEM 职业的工具

• 批准号: 1952613
• 负责人: William Frankino
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: University of Houston
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1952613&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; Immersive; Undergraduate; Research

Part 1: Nontechnical Project Description. Genuine social and financial barriers prevent talented undergraduates – particularly those from underrepresented minorities – from participating in university research, and ultimately from building careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM). Overcoming these multifaceted barriers is a matter of equity, and is critical for scientific progress,United States STEM workforce development, and national security. The researchers have developed a 19-week undergraduate research experience in Houston and the Galápagos islands, Ecuador. The Program is designed purposefully to help underrepresented minorities overcome the social barriers that limit their participation and success in STEM. However, the combined cost of Programtuition, travel, research station fees, and lost time from work means that participation is cost-prohibitive formany students. This award will support financially the participation of talented but financiallydisadvantaged students in the Program.The primary aims are to enable an increase in the participation of talented, financiallyunderprivileged students in this unique research experience and to bring these students to lifelongsuccess in STEM. In addition, the data generated by students are used to understand the naturalfunctioning of the Galápagos, and can guide policy recommendations that ensure responsibledevelopment and conservation not just of these islands, but of any ecologically sensitive near-coastalareas that experience growing ecotourism pressures or that are on the margins of emerging urbanenvironments. Finally, the Program evaluation will generate data-driven insights into the aspects of the Program that leads to student success; publication of these findings will enable adoption and modificationof the proposed approach not just by minority serving institutions, but by any that desire to increase the racial andeconomic diversity of populations successful in STEM.Part 2: Technical Project Description. The existing Program is built around helpingundergraduates, particularly those from underrepresented minority (URMs) populations, overcomecontextual barriers to STEM success. Students in the Program spend one semester in an intensivepreparatory course at the University of Houston (UH) that uses the Galápagos as a model to exploreseveral topics in geology, evolutionary biology, history, and conservation. Through the course, studentsalso engage in numerous cohort building (e.g., camping, behind-the-scenes zoo tours) and professionaltraining activities (e.g., how to read the scientific literature critically, how to present findings, RCR, use offield biology gear). They then conduct collaborative research for four weeks in the Galápagos with facultybased at the Galápagos Science Center on San Cristóbal island. Undergraduate teams contribute tofaculty-led projects focused on basic biology and ecological health of the Galápagos under differentintensities and forms of stress from development. While in the islands, students are immersed in localculture through home-stays with local families, build their professional networks and STEM identities,develop STEM self-efficacy, etc. Upon return to UH, students engage in several structured academic anddevelopmental activities such as training in the use of personal narrative to communicate theirexperiences and research, guidance in presenting findings at professional meetings, developingapplications to graduate school, etc. These activities are aimed at facilitate transition to continuingundergraduate research, post-graduate study, or careers in STEM,The full cost of Program participation is considerable, and excludes students with financial need.The IRES Award aims to provide financial support to academically talented Program aspirants with unmetfinancial need; funds will cover the full cost of Program participation, including tuition, travel, housing,Galápagos park and research station fees, and income lost from student time away from outside work.Data generated by the students increases our understanding the Galápagos, and has clearapplied value for ecologically sensitive near-coastal areas globally. Importantly, the Program evaluationwill generate new insights into how diverse and ongoing immersive training, undergraduate research, andstrong financial support can drive URM success in STEM. Publication of these insights will enable broaduse of our approach to increase the racial and economic diversity of populations successful in STEM.Such focused efforts to increase URM success in STEM is a matter of equity that is critical to the nationalinterest as ongoing demographic shifts affect the composition of our student and worker populationsThis award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

第1部分：非技术项目描述。真正的社会和财务障碍可以阻止有才华的本科生，特别是代表少数群体不足的本科生，也无法参加大学研究，最终从科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）中建立职业。克服这些多方面的障碍是公平的问题，对于科学进步，美国STEM劳动力发展和国家安全至关重要。研究人员在休斯敦和厄瓜多尔加拉帕戈斯群岛开发了19周的本科研究经验。该计划的目的是为了帮助少数群体不足的少数群体克服限制其参与和成功的社会障碍。但是，编程，旅行，研究站的总成本和工作时间的综合成本意味着参与是学生的成本良好形式。该奖项将在财务上支持有才华但财务不利的学生参与该计划。主要目的是使才华横溢的，财务贫困的学生参与这一独特的研究经验，并将这些学生带到STEM中的终身学习经验。此外，学生产生的数据用于了解加拉帕戈斯群岛的自然功能，并可以指导政策建议，以确保对这些岛屿的负责任的发展和保护，而是对任何对生态敏感敏感的近坐骨的影响，而这些岛屿上的生态旅游压力会增加，或者在出现的Urbanenenvironments的边缘上都有成长的生态旅游压力或具有越来越多的生态敏感性。最后，计划评估将对导致学生成功的计划的各个方面产生数据驱动的见解；这些发现的发表将不仅可以通过少数派服务机构来采用和修改拟议的方法，还可以通过任何希望增加人口的种族和经济多样性在STEM中成功的愿望。第2部分：技术项目描述。现有的计划围绕着帮助大学生，尤其是来自代表性不足的少数民族（URMS）人口的计划，克服了成功的障碍。该计划的学生在休斯敦大学（UH）的一项密集准备课程中度过了一个学期，该课程使用Galápagos作为模型，在地质，进化生物学，历史和保护方面探索探索主题。在课程中，学生参与了许多队列建筑（例如，露营，幕后动物园之旅）和专业培训活动（例如，如何批判性地阅读科学文献，如何提出发现，RCR，使用牛场生物学装备）。然后，他们在加拉帕戈斯（Galápagos）进行了四个星期的合作研究，并在圣克里斯托岛（SanCristóbalIsland）的加拉帕戈斯科学中心（GalápagosScience Center）与教职员工进行了合作研究。本科团队在分化和发展的压力形式下，以托法尔蒂为主导的项目为主导的项目。在岛上，学生通过与当地家庭的家庭末日沉浸在当地文化中，建立他们的专业网络和STEM身份，发展自我效能感，等等。返回UH时，学生从事几项结构化的学术和发展活动，例如使用个人叙事进行培训，例如使用个人叙事来传达他们的经验和研究，以进行这些活动，以进行研究，以进行研究，以进行研究，以进行培养，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动，以培养培养的活动，旨在培养活动，以培养活动，以培养活动。研究生学习或STEM的职业，课程参与的全部成本是相当大的，不包括具有财务需求的学生。《 IRES奖》旨在为具有非全面需求的学术才华的计划有抱负者提供财务支持；资金将涵盖课程参与的全部成本，包括学费，旅行，住房，加拉帕戈斯公园和研究站的费用，以及从学生时代远离外部工作的收入。学生会产生的数据使我们的了解加剧了Galápagos，并且对全球范围内的生态敏感近代领域具有宣传价值。重要的是，该计划评估将为潜水员和持续的身临其境的培训，本科研究，和Strong Fanangy支持如何在STEM中取得成功。这些见解的发表将能够广泛地使用我们的方法，以增加人口的种族和经济多样性，以se茎成功。集中精力为增加茎中的URM成功的努力是公平问题，这对民族引人入胜至关重要，因为持续的人口统计学转变会影响我们的学生和工人人口的组成，这一奖项反映了NSF的法定宣传和宽广的依据，这是由NSF的法规范围的依据所依据的，这是众所周知的支持。 标准。