Undergraduate Research Center of Central Virginia: Planning Grant Proposal

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The award from the Chemistry Division supports an Undergraduate Research Centers (URC) planning grant. The PI is Robert Granger. The co-PIs are John Beck of Sweet Briar College, Henry Schreiber of Virginia Military Institute, Herbert Sipe of Hampton-Sydney College and Erich Uffelman of Washington and Lee University. In addition to these four institutions, three others will be involved in establishing a regional Undergraduate Research Center: Lynchburg College, Randolph-Macon Women's College and Hollins University. Participation of a community college and a high school is also planned. One of the planning goals is to develop a detailed management plan of action for obtaining their goals which include promoting reforms in culture and curriculum at participating institutions, assessing infrastructure needs, fostering collaborations with industry, graduate institutions and 2-year institutions, and maintenance of their collective resources and instrumentation. Undergraduate research opportunities will be increased for first and second year students by reforms in curricula to include more inquiry-based learning. The summer research program at these institutions will grow and partnerships with industry will support summer internships and cooperative experiences. The project includes a K-12 science teacher education component, including the participation of both in-service and pre-service teachers. The URC consortium will disseminate their results and their pedagogy via publications and presentations at meetings, including the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research, which is published by VMI.