Research Experience for Undergraduates Site on Sustainable Land and Water Resources--A Community-Based Participatory Research Experience for Undergraduates

PIs已被授予NSF奖，以实施一个专注于可持续土地和水资源的REU网站。该REU网站的目标将是向本科生介绍对改进管理实践至关重要的土地和水资源研究的关键要素，重点是基于社区的参与性研究(CBPR)和不同的跨学科研究团队。学生们被分成三个小组，将进行综合地球表面动力学、地质学、水文学和其他学科的研究。研究小组将由两个美洲原住民社区(南部萨利什·库特奈部落和苏必利尔奇佩瓦湖的Fond Du Lac Band)和明尼苏达大学主办，与部落的资源管理部门合作开发项目。这个REU网站将结合跨学科团队导向的方法，强调定量和预测方法、CBPR、本土研究方法和传统生态知识。REU网站将鼓励代表不足的学生和不确定自己如何适应科学世界以追求STEM职业的学生参与。PIS预计，至少75%的参与者将来自STEM中代表性不足的群体，50%将是妇女。大约一半的参与者将是原本不会参与本科研究的学生，如非传统学生(包括父母、已婚学生和年龄较大的学生)。REU网站还将鼓励退伍军人和残疾学生申请。与会者将加强未来地球科学劳动力的多样性；例如，来自前REU地点的20名学生获得了地球科学学位。在这些学生中，9人在读研究生，6人从2年制转到4年制STEM，5人在地球科学或相关领域工作。其他31名参与者仍然是本科生。REU网站将开发一种新的本科生研究范式，将基于地点的研究和基于社区的参与性研究结合在一起。私人投资机构正在培养关于非传统学生和STEM中代表性不足群体的学生更多地参与REU的知识。PIS开发了一种经过验证的、结构化的、支架式的教学科学研究和写作方法，这种方法让可能从未写过技术研究论文的学生接受，并为他们提供所需的技能和支持，以便定期提供高质量的智力产出，并在这个过程中增加他们的智力自信。REU网站的指导计划侧重于帮助导师：a)准备指导高度多样化的学生团队；b)支持导师应对当您指导拥有大量非传统学生的团队时出现的期望、问题和挑战；以及c)帮助导师适应在部落土地上和与土著人民进行研究的文化。学生、教师、研究生和博士后导师、部落专业人员和其他社区成员将密切参与CBPR，开发将内在地支持部落资源管理目标的项目。结果将分发给部落当局和社区成员以及更广泛的科学界。这一REU研究范式的成果将同时在保留地社区内建立更广泛的科学能力遗产，并在信任和尊重的共同基础上提供科学发现的途径。

The PIs have been granted an NSF award to implement an REU Site focused on Sustainable Land and Water Resources. The goal of this REU Site will be to introduce undergraduate students to key elements of research on land and water resources essential to improving management practices, with a focus on Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and diverse interdisciplinary research teams. Students, divided into three teams, will conduct research that integrates Earth-surface dynamics, geology, hydrology and other disciplines. Research teams will be hosted by two Native American communities (Confederated Salish Kootenai Tribes and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa) and the University of Minnesota to work on projects developed in collaboration with the tribes' resource management divisions. This REU Site will incorporate an interdisciplinary team-oriented approach that emphasizes quantitative and predictive methods, CBPR, indigenous research methods, and traditional ecological knowledge. The REU Site will encourage participation by underrepresented students and students who are unsure about how they fit into the world of science to pursue STEM careers. The PIs expect that at least 75% of the participants will be from groups underrepresented in STEM and 50% will be women. Approximately half of the participants will be students who would not otherwise participate in undergraduate research, such as non-traditional students (which includes parents, married students, and older students). The REU Site also will encourage veterans and students with disabilities to apply. Participants will enhance the diversity of the future geoscience workforce; for example, 20 students from the previous REU Site have received degrees in the geosciences. Of these, 9 are in graduate school, 6 have transferred from their 2-year program to a 4-year STEM program, and 5 are working in the geosciences or a related field. The other 31 participants are still undergraduate students.The REU Site will develop a new paradigm for undergraduate research incorporating place-based and community-based participatory research. The PIs are building knowledge on increasing participation in REUs by the non-traditional students and students from groups underrepresented in STEM. The PIs have developed a proven, structured, scaffolded method of teaching science research and writing, which takes students who may have never written a technical research paper and provides them the skills and support needed to routinely deliver high quality intellectual outputs and increase their intellectual self-confidence in the process. The mentoring plan for the REU Site is focused on helping mentors to: a) prepare to mentor highly diverse teams of students; b) support mentors to deal with the expectations, issues and challenges that arise when you are mentoring teams that have a large number of nontraditional students; and c) help mentors get acculturated to conducting research on tribal lands and with Native people. The students, faculty, graduate and post-doctoral mentors, tribal professionals and other community members will be intimately engaged in CBPR, developing projects that will inherently support tribal resource management goals. Results will be disseminated to tribal authorities and community members as well as the broader scientific community. Outcomes of this REU research paradigm will concurrently establish a legacy of broader scientific capacity within reservation communities and provide pathways to scientific discoveries with a shared foundation of trust and respect.