Research Experiences for Undergraduates Site: Ecology in Human-Dominated Lanscapes

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This REU Site award to Miami University, located in Oxford, Ohio, will support the training of 9 students for 10 weeks during the summers of 2015-2019. Participants will conduct individual research projects that emphasize ecological questions presented by human activity and global climate change. Research mentors will be from diverse disciplines including biology, geology, chemistry, microbiology, and geography. The program is collaborative and interdisciplinary, so that participants can come to recognize that understanding ecology necessarily incorporates diverse views and approaches. Students participate in the workshop "A People and Their Homeland: the Miami Tribe" led by tribal educators, which provides a historical perspective on the relationship between humans and the regional landscape. The program includes a second workshop focusing on the scientific profession, discussion sessions, field trips, and visits by world-renowned scientists from other institutions. Selection of student participants is based on student qualities and the match between their interests and projects proposed by mentors.It is anticipated that a total of 45 students, primarily from schools with limited research opportunities, will be trained in the program. Students will learn how research is conducted, and many will present the results of their work at scientific conferences and in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to expanding knowledge of climate change and environmental problems, students will come to appreciate traditional ecological knowledge and the history of human-landscape interactions. In this way, the program will prepare participants to become ecoliterate citizens in an ever-changing global society.A common web-based assessment tool used by all REU programs funded by the Division of Biological Infrastructure (Directorate for Biological Sciences) helps to determine the effectiveness of the training program. In addition, participants will be asked to provide feedback throughout the summer and beyond. Together this information will be used to improve the activities and experiences. Students are required to be tracked after the program and must respond to an automatic email sent via the NSF reporting system. More information is available by visiting http://www.miamioh.edu/ecoreu, or by contacting the PI (Dr. David J. Berg at BergDJ@miamioh.edu) or the co-PI (Dr. Ann L. Rypstra at Rypstral@miamioh.edu).