Polar (NSF 15-114): Research Opportunities in the Arctic for Minorities (ROAM2): Elucidating drivers of Arctic ecosystem responses to global change.

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Few undergraduate programs appear to be adequately designed to prepare students with data analysis skills, especially as these pertain to Arctic Science. In order to address urgent challenges and needs in both student training and global-change science, the overarching goal of this project is to train students at this Hispanic-serving institution to be leading data professionals capable in cross-disciplinary collaboration, team science, and scientific communication. The program will center on the infusion of quantitative skills development in course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) spanning an undergraduate curriculum that addresses data intensive challenges in Arctic ecosystem ecology. Using legacy and recent Arctic data resources for the Barrow area in northernmost Alaska, together with field experiences and lab-based manipulations, the PIs will orchestrate authentic, collaborative research experiences, where students will develop research questions, collect, analyze, and synthesize data, and communicate results in scientifically valid venues on topics that have yet to be investigated. This proposal builds on the PIs prior success with both International Polar Year funding for a program that took underserved students to Antarctica (PLR 0632360), funding for undergraduate cyberinfrastructure training (DUE 0733055), and funding for a GK-12 program (DGE 0947993). A series of novel and vertically integrated CUREs will be designed that are: i) implemented in both lower and upper-division courses; b) focused in the area of data-intensive ecosystem ecology; and c) constructed in a manner intended to enhance students' cognitive and non-cognitive attributes. Arctic ecologists and a specialist in education research will collaborate to design the CUREs and complete a formal evaluation of the educational impact of the proposed activities. Tutorials implemented across the curriculum, as well as web-based resources, will facilitate skills development and transfer of knowledge and data. Nearly 200 students will be impacted directly by this program, which will serve to reinforce a pipeline of students, especially Hispanic students, into UTEP graduate programs. Existing archived Arctic data resources will be applied in a training environment; new complementary data will be collected, integrated, analyzed, published and archived using standardized format and best practice. Through contributions to CUREnet and other online media, the PIs will also support adoption by other institutions. Presentations of results will occur at local to national scales and be published in peer-reviewed journals, and additional outreach activities in El Paso and Barrow will also impact high school and community college students.