REU site: Interdisciplinary Research Experience in Environmental Science and Engineering

蒙大拿州理工大学的REU网站将有兴趣从事描述和改善环境质量的职业的学生与多学科和跨学科项目联系起来，这些项目侧重于用新兴技术可持续地解决问题。蒙大拿州理工大学位于MT州Butte落基山脉的中心地带，独特地靠近各种自然和人为环境问题，其中最引人注目的是100多年来地下和露天硬岩开采造成的问题。这个为期十周的年度暑期项目为学生提供了环境领域可能职业的概述，通过访问附近几个有不同问题的现场地点，并探索用于解决这些问题的研究和工程解决方案。10名被选中的学生参与者将与教师导师进行匹配，使用各自领域的最新方法和技术进行指导研究项目。学生参与科学过程的每个阶段并获得经验。这种密集的方法让学生对科学过程有一个广阔的视野，同时让他们在自己的项目上取得进展，并学习记录和交流他们的工作。该计划旨在加强和促进学生参与者的职业生涯，增加STEM中代表性不足的群体的参与，并在近期和长期内提高环境质量。在完成课程后，学生将有各种前沿方法来描述和解决环境问题的第一手经验，这将为学生的相关职业或继续研究生教育提供良好的帮助。这个为期10周的本科生暑期研究项目让学生全面了解他们最感兴趣的环境领域的科学或工程方法。该计划可分为三个阶段：实地调查，指导实验室项目和报告。在第一阶段（约2周），学生从参与的教师那里学习水化学、沉积物和土壤成分、指数和工程性质的采样策略以及相关方法。学生和项目教师参观并采样附近的现场，包括受采矿影响的溪流，受气候变化影响的高山生态系统，现代和历史的采矿作业和修复地点，以及用微生物为重点的工程方法稳定的风成沉积物。学生将有一个补充的安全和道德课堂的组成部分。由此产生的样本和数据将用于整个项目中学生的专业发展，直到他们进入第二阶段（约8周），即本科实验室调查。参与者的项目范围从地球化学到恢复生态学，再到地质和环境工程，将由参与的教师导师指导。在最后的报告阶段（约1周），学生们将他们的研究结果提交给蒙大拿理工学院所有夏季本科生研究的研讨会。学生们还将以适合其指导研究学科的格式撰写他们的研究结果的书面总结。最后一个阶段的目标是引导学生准备一个专业的工作产品，并建立强大的科学沟通技能。招聘工作主要集中在蒙大拿州和附近州的本科院校和部落学院，在这些地方，类似的环境和岩土工程挑战普遍存在。招生工作预计将产生一个多样化的申请者群体，美国原住民和低收入家庭的学生尤其有代表性。该计划的成功与否将由经验丰富的外部评估人员进行评估，并提供从资源到结果的逻辑图。由外部评估人员主持的培训可以将这些知识保留在校园里，并用于随后涉及本科生的研究。这些组成部分的总和帮助学生过渡到一个有回报的STEM领域的专业人士，有利于当地社区和环境。该项目由EAR-REU计划和促进竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）共同资助。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The REU site at Montana Tech connects students interested in a career characterizing and improving environmental quality with multi- and interdisciplinary projects focused on solving problems sustainably with emerging technologies. Montana Technological University, located in the heart of the Rocky Mountains in Butte, MT, is uniquely situated near a wide range of natural and anthropogenic environmental problems, most notably issues resulting from more than 100 years of underground and open-pit hard rock mining. This ten-week annual summer program provides students with an overview of possible careers in the environmental field by visiting several nearby field locations with diverse problems and explores the research and engineering solutions being applied to solve these issues. The ten selected student participants are matched with faculty mentors for a guided research project using the latest methods and techniques in each respective field. Students participate and gain experience in each phase of the scientific process. This intensive approach gives students a broad view of the scientific process while allowing them to make progress on their own projects and learning to document and communicate their work. The program aims to enhance and enable the careers of student participants, lead to increased participation of underrepresented groups in STEM, and advance environmental quality in the near and long term. Upon completion of the program, students have first-hand experience with a variety of cutting-edge methods to characterize and solve environmental problems, which will serve students well for a related career or continuing graduate education. This 10-week undergraduate summer research program gives students a complete picture of the scientific or engineering approach in an environmental field closest to their interests. The program can be broken down into three phases: field investigation, mentored laboratory project, and reporting. During the first phase (~2 weeks), students learn sampling strategies for water chemistry, sediment and soil composition, index and engineering properties, and related methods from participating faculty. Students and program faculty visit and sample nearby field sites including mining-impacted streams, alpine ecosystems affected by climate change, modern and historical mining operations and remediation sites, and an eolian deposit being stabilized with microbially focused engineering methods. Students will have a complementary safety and ethics classroom component. The resulting samples and data are used for professional development for students throughout the program as a whole as they move into phase 2 (~8 weeks), undergraduate laboratory investigations. The participants work on projects ranging from geochemistry, to restoration ecology, to geological and environmental engineering will be supervised by participating faculty mentors. During the final reporting phase (~1 week), students present their results to a symposium for all summer undergraduate research taking place at Montana Tech. Students also compose a written summary of their results in a format appropriate to the discipline of their guided research. The goal of the last phase is to guide students through the preparation of a professional work product and build strong science communication skills. Recruitment efforts focus on predominantly undergraduate institutions and tribal colleges from Montana and nearby states where analogous environmental and geotechnical challenges are prevalent. Recruitment efforts are expected to yield a diverse applicant pool, with Native American and low-income students particularly well represented. The success of this program will be evaluated by an experienced external evaluator and provide a logic diagram from resources to outcomes. The trainings hosted by the external evaluator allow this knowledge to be retained on campus and used in subsequent research involving undergraduates. The sum of these components helps students transition to being professionals in a rewarding STEM field that benefits local communities and the environment.This project is jointly funded by the EAR-REU program and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).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.