REU Site: Climate Change Across The Various Scales of System Organization

NSF的化学部(CHE)和数学和物理科学局的多学科活动办公室支持一个由圣地亚哥大学的黛比·塔马塞比和索尼娅·萨拉特领导的本科生研究体验(REU)网站。每年夏天，REU计划支持10名学生进行为期10周的暑期研究。该计划的重点是招收社区学院的学生(目前在校的学生和最近转学到联合大学的学生)，特别考虑那些退伍军人、在STEM中代表性不足、从事研究机会有限的学生。参与者接受现代研究方面的指导，并接受培训，以综合的方法理解并提出应对复杂气候变化问题的战略。具体地说，参与者了解新知识是如何产生的，学习如何合成科学信息，并学习在考虑到各种学科的情况下设计实验。通过这种综合的方法，学生发展成为创新的科学家，能够解释数据，得出结论，并更好地理解气候变化对环境和其他生物的影响。美国大学国家科学基金会REU旨在让来自代表性不足的人群和退伍军人的学生更好地为进入STEM学者和21世纪的STEM队伍做准备。美国大学的NSF REU网站邀请学生与生物学、化学与生物化学、工程学、环境与海洋科学、数学与计算机科学和物理学的教师一起进行跨学科的协作研究。这些研究项目让学生参与以气候变化为中心的研究，这些研究涉及各种规模的系统组织。学生将有一系列的研究机会，从气溶胶粒子的形成，珊瑚礁沉积，生物新陈代谢，捕食者和猎物的相互作用，以及海岸湿地群落结构。更实用的项目包括努力开发将温室气体转化为燃料源的催化剂、收集和储存太阳能的方法以及开发替代的可生物降解复合材料以减少温室气体排放。

The Division Of Chemistry (CHE) and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities in the Mathematics and Physical Sciences Directorate at NSF supports a Research Experience For Undergraduates (REU) site led by Debbie Tahmassebi and Sonia Zarate at the University of San Diego. Each summer, the REU Program supports ten students for 10 weeks of summer research. The program focuses on recruiting community college students (currently enrolled and recent transfers to USD) with special consideration for students that are veterans of the armed forces, are underrepresented in STEM, and have had limited opportunities to engage in research. Participants are mentored in modern research, and are trained to take an integrative approach to understand, and propose strategies to address complex climate change issues. Specifically, participants gain an understanding of how new knowledge is generated, learn how to synthesize scientific information, and learn to design experiments taking various disciplines into consideration. Through this integrative approach students develop into innovative scientists that are able to interpret data, form conclusions, and better understand the impact of climate change on the environment and other organisms. The USD NSF REU seeks to better prepare students from underrepresented populations and veterans for matriculation into STEM Academics and the 21st century STEM workforce.The NSF REU Site at USD engages students in collaborative, interdisciplinary research alongside faculty in Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Engineering, Environmental & Ocean Sciences, Mathematics & Computer Science and Physics. The research projects involve students in studies centered on climate change across the various scales of system organization. Students will have a range of research opportunities from studying formation of aerosol particles, coral reef sedimentation, organism metabolism, predator and prey interactions, and coastal wetland community structure. More applied projects include efforts to develop a catalyst to convert a greenhouse gas into a fuel source, approaches to the collection and storage of solar energy and the development of alternative biodegradable composites to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.