RCN-UBE Incubator: Developing a Faculty Network in a Biodiversity Hotspot: the Research Experiences in Southern California For Undergraduate Ecologists Network

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Ecology is inherently multidisciplinary and often requires inquiry over long periods and across large spatial scales. Although engaging undergraduates in authentic ecological research is a critical component in the training of professional ecologists, most undergraduate research, particularly at primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), is limited in time and spatial scales. In addition, research is often carried out with a student being "siloed" in the faculty mentor's lab and thus isolated from his/her/their research peers. To address these issues and to provide more research opportunities for students, the project team aims to develop the Research Experiences in Southern California for Undergraduate Ecologists Network (RESCUE-net). By bringing faculty from across the region together, RESCUE-net will also catalyze new research collaborations and allow participating faculty to share expertise and resources. Collaborations will focus on preserving the California Floristic Province, a biodiversity hotspot.This grant supports the formation of RESCUE-net, a network of faculty in southern California dedicated to developing opportunities to attract and train diverse students for the conservation workforce and improve student learning while enhancing the scope of faculty research programs at PUIs and building a community of researchers who identify as teacher-scholars. In a series of meetings and workshops, the members of RESCUE-net will work together to identify 1) barriers to providing authentic, collaborative research experiences to a diverse group of undergraduates; and 2) concrete ways the network can enhance undergraduate research at PUIs and bring that research into the classroom. Using this information, RESCUE-net will develop a framework that enables more undergraduates to conduct student-centered research projects that address the many environmental challenges facing the California Floristic Province.This project is being jointly funded by the Directorate for Biological Sciences, Division of Biological Infrastructure, and the Directorate for Education and Human Resources, Division of Undergraduate Education as part of their efforts to address the challenges posed in "Vision and Change in Undergraduate Biology Education: A Call to Action" (http://visionandchange/finalreport).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.