Discovery Corps Fellowship: Cyber-Enhancing PUI Chemistry Programs by Cambridge Structural Database System Facilitated e-Learning and Undergraduate Research

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The Division of Chemistry supports Gregory M. Ferrence of Illinois State University as a Discovery Corps Senior Fellow for the 2007-2008 academic year. Ferrence will develop a teaching subset of the Cambridge Structural Database (CSD) along with educational modules centered on the use of the Cambridge Structural Database System (CSDS), which will be disseminated to ~twenty primarily undergraduate institutions and to the ten two-year colleges in the Chicago City Colleges Undergraduate Research Collaborative (URC), also supported by the Chemistry Division. Ferrence will visit the partner schools to provide workshops to participating faculty on the use of the CSDS and its incorporation into undergraduate teaching and research. The project also will make extensive use of cyber-learning and multi-site video conferencing to facilitate the exchange of ideas and best practices among faculty at the thirty diverse institutions. This project will build on Ferrence's involvement with the Chicago City Colleges URC and the NSF-supported STaRBURSTT (Science Teaching and Research Bring Undergraduate Strengths Through Technology) cyber-instrumentation consortium. Participating institutions will receive a complete, fully functional version of the CSDS to use in their coursework and undergraduate research programs. Faculty also will be expected to test beta versions of the CSDS modules to help develop tools more widely accessible to the undergraduate research/teaching community. More than seventy chemistry faculty and over a thousand students will be impacted over the tenure of this Discovery Corps project. The impact of this project will be measured from surveys collected from participating faculty.The Discovery Corps Fellowship Program seeks new postdoctoral and professional development models that combine research expertise with professional service. Discovery Corps Fellows leverage their research expertise through projects that address areas of national need. Their projects enhance research capacity and infrastructure and contribute to workforce development and job creation. The Discovery Corps Program supports both Postdoctoral Fellows and Senior Fellows.