Collaborative Research: REU Site: Past and Present Human-Environment Dynamics

该项目由本科生研究经验(REU)网站计划联合资助。它兼具科学和社会效益，并将研究与教育融为一体。本科生合作研究体验：过去、现在和人类-环境动力学计划建立在库比论坛研究和培训计划(KFRTP)的成功基础上，并将为人类学、考古学、地质学、人类生物学和民族考古学的综合培训和研究开发一个新的框架。几千年来，人类一直在与不断变化的环境互动。对于生活在偏远和资源贫乏的生态系统中的社区来说，环境变化带来了威胁生命的挑战。过去生存方式的改变使人类能够适应环境的变化。这些生存变化也对人类生活的生态系统产生了巨大影响，对生活在偏远栖息地的社区的健康产生了影响。该项目将培训来自不同背景(包括在职教师)的3组8名学生，他们将学习各种可转移的STEM技能，以调查人类行为和环境变化的交集。多种辅导环境将允许学生在支持性和协作性环境中学习技能。该项目将侧重于学生支持和研究人类与环境相互作用的关键组成部分的队列的发展。每个学生将：1)通过与国际领先的人类生物学家和考古学家一起设计和实施原创研究项目来获得新知识，2)使用最先进的方法收集和分析数据，3)综合发现并在美国的后续研讨会和专业发展研讨会上展示，以及4)与美国自然历史博物馆(纽约)的外联协调员一起参与关于公众对科学的理解的培训。这个REU项目将在全国范围内招收至少24名美国本科生，重点是STEM领域代表性不足的学生。我们的一部分学生将参与教师研究体验，并利用这一体验来制定学校课程。我们的项目将重点关注人类之间的互动和过去和现在不断变化的生态系统动态。具体地说，我们将调查以下问题：现在和过去的人口如何对不断变化的生态压力做出反应？2)不同的生存策略对生态系统有什么影响？3)当前社区如何与环境互动以满足他们的水和食物需求，以及这对营养状况、水分状况和健康结果有什么影响？4)不同的人口如何利用流动和土地利用的变化模式来应对这些生态和生存挑战？研究这些问题将构成跨学科培训的基础。受训者将获得一系列广泛适用的技能，因为他们对热带干旱地区不断变化的环境参数与人类适应之间的关系有了全面的看法。学生研究将被纳入AMNH正在进行的公共宣传和青年倡议计划中。相关的RET部分将帮助为K-12学生开发学习模块，强调行为和生物适应快速变化的生境的时间超越性。该项目将帮助记录目前未得到充分服务的约12000名社区成员的健康和水问题，并向县和国家一级的组织提交成果。该项目将为本科生提供一个关于合作实地研究项目的独特的、全面的培训机会。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The project is jointly funded by the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Sites program. It has both scientific and societal benefits and integrates research with education. The collaborative Research Experience for Undergraduates: Past, Present and Human-Environment Dynamics program builds on the success of the Koobi Fora Research and Training Program (KFRTP) and will develop a new framework for integrated training and research in anthropology, archaeology, geology, human biology and ethnoarchaeology. Humans have been interacting with changing environments for thousands of years. For communities that live in remote and resource poor ecosystems, environmental changes present life-threatening challenges. Changes in subsistence practices in the past have allowed humans to adapt to environmental changes. These subsistence changes have also had a dramatic impact on the ecosystems that humans lived in with consequences for the health of communities that live in remote habitats. This project will train 3 cohorts of 8 students from diverse backgrounds (including in service teachers) that will learn a variety of transferable STEM skills to investigate the intersection of human behavior and environmental change. Multiple mentorship contexts will allow students to learn skills in a supportive and collaborative environment. This project will focus on student support and the development of cohorts who will investigate critical components of the interaction of humans and their environments. Each student will: 1) generate new knowledge by designing and conducting an original research project with leading international human biologists and archaeologists, 2) collect and analyze data using state-of-the-art methods, 3) synthesize and present the findings at follow-up workshops and professional development seminars in the U.S., and 4) engage in training on the public understanding of science with outreach coordinators at the American Museum of Natural History (New York). This REU project will recruit at least 24 US-undergraduate students nationwide- focusing on students underrepresented in STEM fields. A portion of our students will be involved in a Research Experience for Teachers and use this experience to develop school curricula. Our project will focus the interaction between humans and shifting ecosystem dynamics in the past and present. Specifically, we will investigate the following questions: How do present and past populations react to changing ecological pressures? 2)What was the impact of different subsistence strategies on the ecosystem? 3) How do current communities interact with their environment to meet their water and food needs and what are the impacts of this on nutritional status, hydration status, and health outcomes? 4) How have different populations used shifting patterns of mobility and land use to address these ecological and subsistence challenges? Investigating these questions will form the basis of interdisciplinary training. Trainees will gain a series of widely applicable skills as they gain a holistic perspective on the interface between changing environmental parameters and human adaptations in a tropical arid region. Student research will be incorporated into ongoing public outreach and youth initiative programs at the AMNH. The associated RET component will help develop learning modules for K-12 students that emphasize the time transgressive nature of behavioral and biological adaptations to rapidly changing habitats. This project will help document the health and water issues of ~12,000 community members who are currently under-served and present results to county and national level organizations. This project will provide undergraduate students with a unique, holistic training opportunity on a collaborative field research project.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.