Planning Grant for the Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University

【摘要】弗吉尼亚联邦大学英格和沃尔特·赖斯环境生命科学中心规划拨款一项由L. Smock博士指导的拨款已授予弗吉尼亚联邦大学，用于制定一项战略计划，以指导该大学新的生物实地站——英格和沃尔特·赖斯环境生命科学中心的项目和基础设施的发展。该基地位于弗吉尼亚州里士满附近的詹姆斯河沿岸，占地约350英亩的未开发土地，支持陆地和水生栖息地的多样性，这将大大提高VCU的研究能力，大学水平的教学，以及为K-12学生和终身学习者提供的扩展教育计划。这个实地站距离里士满市中心只有30分钟的路程，它的建立尤其令人兴奋，因为它靠近我们的城市校园，并有能力为相对较大的城市和农村人口提供服务，这些学生是少数民族。计划奖助金的重点是举办一系列工作坊，为中心发展一个全面的策略计划。一个讲习班的参加者将从该区域各地的外地站选出，利用他们的经验制订有关该站的行政、数据管理以及研究和教育方案的计划。第二次研讨会将汇集来自学术界和政府机构的研究人员，以发展潜在的研究合作，重点关注大河的生态、保护和政策问题，这是赖斯中心拟议的主要研究重点。第三组研讨会将侧重于外展教育，将来自周边学区的适当的K-12教师和管理人员以及潜在的合作组织和机构聚集在一起，为外展项目的发展制定一项综合计划。这些活动的结果将是一个书面的5-10年的战略计划，赖斯中心。建议的活动既具有很强的智力价值，又对公众产生更广泛的影响。赖斯中心的发展将在该规划基金成果的指导下，形成一个具有明确方向的实地研究站，支持以大河生态为重点的广泛合作研究活动。在整个地区的大学和K-12课程中，大量未被充分代表的种族学生将直接进入莱斯中心的课程，这一点意义重大。这个实地站有可能极大地影响整个地区的教学活动，并大大增加教师、大学生、K-12课程和终身学习者的机会。

AbstractPlanning Grant for the Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth UniversityA grant has been awarded to Virginia Commonwealth University under the direction of Dr. L. Smock to develop a strategic plan to guide the development of programs and infrastructure at the University's new biological field station, the Inger and Walter Rice Center for Environmental Life Sciences. The site, consisting of about 350 acres of undeveloped land along the James River near Richmond, Virginia, supports a diversity of terrestrial and aquatic habitats that will greatly enhance VCU's research capabilities, university-level instruction, and outreach education programs for K-12 students and life-long learners. Establishment of this field station, which is only 30 minutes from downtown Richmond, is especially exciting because of its proximity to our urban campus and its ability to serve a relatively large urban and rural population of students of underrepresented ethnicity. The focus of the Planning Grant is to hold a series of workshops to develop a comprehensive strategic plan for the Center. Participants of one workshop will be drawn from field stations throughout the region, drawing on their experience to develop plans pertaining to administration, data management, and research and education programs at the station. A second workshop will bring together researchers from academic and government agencies to develop potential research collaborations focused on the ecology, conservation and policy issues of large rivers, this being the proposed primary focus of research at the Rice Center. A third set of workshops will focus on outreach education, bringing together appropriate K-12 teachers and administrators from the surrounding school districts, as well as potential partnering organizations and agencies, to develop a comprehensive plan for the development of outreach programs. The outcome of these activities will be a written 5-10 year strategic plan for the Rice Center.The proposed activities have both strong intellectual merit and broader impacts to the public. Development of the Rice Center, as guided by the outcome of this Planning Grant, will result in a field station with a clear direction toward supporting a wide range of collaborative research activities focused on the ecology of large rivers. The high number of students of underrepresented ethnicities both in universities and K-12 programs throughout the region who will have direct access to programs at the Rice Center is significant. This field station has the potential to greatly impact instructional activities throughout the region and to greatly enhance opportunities for faculty, university-students, K-12 programs and life-long learners.