Progress 07/15/06 to 07/14/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: As the title of our grant implies, we established goals that would enhance our students' understanding of forest and range ecosystem and prepare them for careers in related fields. We targeted an experience for eighteen undergraduates. Instead, we provided research and/or internship support for thirty students. Thirteen of those students (forty-three percent) are Hispanic. The student body at St. Edward's is approximately 33% Hispanic, and so we accomplished our goal of having an over-representation of Hispanic students within our group. Much of that is due to the effectiveness our long-term relationships with groups on campus that have large numbers of Hispanic students, including our College Assistance Migrant Program. We can see from anecdotal comments in our participants' evaluations that Monica Flores was a huge asset in helping all students, but especially Hispanic students, relate to the CO-Pi's. In year 1, we provided research stipends to six undergraduate students as they conducted research on campus with the two project directors. In the second year, we provided research stipends to ten students for similar experiences, mostly on-campus but one off-campus. In the third year we provided stipends to eight students, two off campus. Thus, twenty-four students participated in funded research under this project. All of those students produced written manuscripts of their research. All presented their results, either orally or in poster format, at regional meetings. Nine of these students won recognition (and a cash award) for the quality of their presentations at three different annual meetings of the Texas Academy of Science. Four presented at national meetings. In year 2, we provided travel support (financial and logistical) for a cohort of six students to work in internships with the US Forest Service. In year 3, that number rose to seven. In year 4, we supported eight more. Thus, twenty-one students participated in forest internships with the USFS. These internships ranged from wilderness, to silviculture, to forest inventory, to plant management, to recreation management. We developed materials for a course called research methods that we adapted to this project. A copy of the syllabus for that course can be provided. We produced a recruitment PowerPoint presentation in collaboration with our colleagues at the US Forest Service. Eight of our participants have worked as members of summer high school outreach programs in conjunction with our NSF Noyce Scholars Program. Through this and other efforts we met with students on multiple occasions from LBJ High school, Crockett High School, Martin Middle School, and an inner city Charter School, all of which have high minority populations, to introduce them to our students and their work. PARTICIPANTS: Over 30 students and over ten research faculty and/or research mentors have participated in this program. In addition, over ten US Forest service Personnel and four Agricultural Research Service scientists have participated. Invaluable faculty development opportunities in grant writing and administration, agricultural science and teaching were provided through the grant to all of the Project Directors and some of their colleagues. The project energized an entire academic department with research ideas and it established an important and otherwise non-existent network of professional contacts that has blossomed because of the program. Participating scientists at St. Edward's have made international, national and regional connections because of this grant, connections that have been and continue to be used to better prepare students for agricultural careers. Truly, it has changed the nature of the University. TARGET AUDIENCES: The primary target upon which we focused was undergraduate students in the life sciences at St. Edward's University. Our evaluative data support that we reached a broad variety of students and that we were very successful in helping them develop and clarify an interest in the agricultural sciences. Colleagues at other institutions were a secondary audience, and we were very successful in reaching them. Because of our success in reaching that secondary audience, we have networked with colleagues at large land-grant institutions in Colorado and Texas to enhance the agricultural education of our primarily Hispanic undergraduate students. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Because of the largesse of the University administration and because of our demonstrated success in effectively educating large numbers of students via research and field internships, we were able to shift funds away from administrative support toward providing support to almost twice as many students as we had targeted originally.
Impacts
Five of our 21 US Forest Service internship students followed up their internship experience by working for a second summer with USFS. One of those five has worked for three years with the USFS. Unfortunately, our curriculum does not prepare our students to meet the OPM minimum requirements for most USFS positions, and so they have trouble finding permanent employment with the agency. Still, one of our participants did accept a permanent full time position with a non-targeted USDA partner, the Agricultural Research Service. This curricular shortcoming has produced another outcome in that the Project Director has been charged with developing new courses in plants physiology, soils and forestry to add to the curriculum. The first of those courses, Soil and Plant Interactions, a four credit course with a laboratory component, will be taught in the Spring, 2012 semester. A syllabus for the course is available. Seven of our participants are studying in graduate programs, six of them in the agricultural sciences. Three of those are Hispanic, and one of them is in a graduate program in forestry that will include a research position with the US Forest Service. The project has resulted in increases in the interest of SEU students in agriculture. Over the past two summers, nineteen SEU students have participated in a separate exploratory trip to visit federal resource management agencies in the western US to learn more about careers in agriculture. It is important to note that this outcome shows the impact that this project has had in changing the culture of the University to the point where students are lining up to learn more about careers and graduate study in agriculture. The research/internship model developed here has been used by our colleagues for similar successful collaborations with USDA agencies. Two faculty members (that represents one-quarter of the tenure track faculty in the department) and two undergraduates have been influenced by this project to the degree that they developed and implemented a research project in agriculture with colleagues at the University of Colorado to study insect biological control agents. The University has acquired a field laboratory site of over 200 acres for forest and range study, and the Project Director has been charged with developing and introducing soils and plant physiology courses into the curriculum. Six students have contacted federal natural resource management agencies for employment next summer. One student has dropped his courses for the Fall, 2011 semester so that he can pursue a six month position with the US Geological Survey in research. The project has helped us establish and solidify a relationship with an unintended USDA partner agency, the ARS. During and after the grant funding period, five St. Edward's students have worked in the ARS lab in question, only two of whom had support under this grant. Two of our Hispanic students who are now in graduate school in agriculture worked in this lab. The ARS lab director has presented seminars at the University and our students who have worked with him have successfully won research grants from the Texas Academy of Science.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/15/08 to 07/14/09
Outputs
Sixteen undergraduate students participated in the program in its third year, rather than the 12 undergraduates that had been targeted. Six undergraduate students worked on original research projects with the Project Directors. Anther undergraduate worked with a third faculty member within the department. Two others conducted research at the Agricultural Research Service in Houston, Texas. Six undergraduates worked in internships with the USDA Forest Service in the Superior National Forest of Minnesota, and another worked in the Uinta National Forest in Utah. Of these, five are Hispanic-American, two are Asian-American, and nine are Caucasian-American, Non-Hispanic. All are majoring in Biology. All are considering careers in natural resource management and research. Each of the seven participants working on research projects with St. Edward's faculty were supervised by one of the two Project Directors or their colleague within the department. Research included student investigation of photosynthetic rates in species of plants, feeding and mating behavior in species of insects, effects of invasive vegetation on stands of native woodland species, and foraging behavior of Lepidopterans as influenced by varying environmental backgrounds. All faculty mentors guided students as they develop research projects, collect and analyze data and write papers. The same is true of the two students conducting research with the ARS lab in Houston. An alumna of the St. Edward's University College Assistance Migrant Program is working with all of these students in every phase of their projects. The research projects have required each of the students to successfully complete a course in the Spring, 2009 semester called Research Methods in which they developed a research plan. The research plans were the responsibility of the individual students; however they have collaborated and reviewed each other's draft plans during the development process to ensure the quality of their products and analysis. This project has resulted in two changes in the institution. First, it has motivated three other members of the departmental faculty to obtain external funding (two in the form of another USDA HSI Education grant) for student faculty research collaboration in a field related to agriculture and human health. Second, it has led us to reconsider our curriculum, by which we might add two classes in agronomy so that students might be better able to compete for careers in resource management with USDA agencies. It is clear that there have been considerable changes in the students' academic and research abilities. We have collected information on a variety of measurable characteristics including: understanding of scientific research, familiarity with careers in forest and rangeland management, and ability to critique scientific papers. Through this program, we have collected much student information, and those data suggest a substantial change in student abilities and attitudes. We will continue to collect data several times during and after their experiences to measure their academic growth as the project progresses. PRODUCTS: A web-based assessment tool used to measure student progress toward meeting the objectives of the project has been developed and strengthened. Each participant has completed the survey at least twice, and this has provided basic information about the students' status at the beginning of project activities and through their experiences on the St. Edward's campus and beyond. We have modified the initial instrument and created others which we continue to use to collect information during and after the project. This will allow the staff to determine the effectiveness of the project. The staff of this project continues to meet extensively with the US Forest Service Hispanic Internship Coordinator for USFS Region III. All six undergraduate participants who worked under the Project Directors in the summer of 2009 will be recruited into field internships at various sites within the Forest Service in the summer of 2010. According to this plan, students will meet with the U.S. Forest Service Hispanic Internship Coordinator to refine their internship application in the Fall of 2009. The project is currently on target for all of the first ten items of the project's timeline and we anticipate that the program will continue to exceed the benchmarks that were established in the original proposal. OUTCOMES: When the students began their participation with this project, the staff measured their understanding of the scientific research process and their familiarity with published research in their field and with contemporary issues in forest and rangeland resource management. Those assessments have been followed by post-experience measures. Since this project is still relatively new, the staff is gathering data to describe the other outcomes, but student attitudes and abilities have clearly improved. From early data and anecdotal information, it appears that all participating students have increased their comprehension in these areas of interest. It also appears that all participants have increased their understanding of career options in agriculture. The changes were the most dramatic in students who served as interns with the USFS in the summer of 2008. In addition, the project has spawned extremely productive collaborations between St. Edward's and federal agencies. In the summer of 2010, independent of this project, two students will be working for the second year in a row in Forest Service districts. We now have contacts in National Forests in three states, two of whom have begun the habit of requesting St. Edward's student for their internships. That number is likely to grow. In addition, two other students will be working this coming summer with our ARS colleague in Houston on funds that he has obtained from his budget. It is clear that these partnerships would not have been started except for the support provided by this project. In addition, these partnerships seem to be spawning other partnerships with colleagues at the USFS and ARS, other federal agencies, and academic institutions in Texas and across the country. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: A paper presenting the outcomes of this project is being prepared for presentation at the 2010 annual meeting of the Texas Academy of Science. Web pages describing the program have been developed and are accessible through the St. Edward's University home web page. Seven student papers will be disseminated at the annual Texas Academy of Science meeting in March, 2010. FUTURE INITIATIVES: As in the past, research students collect field data as a part of their on-campus experience and produce a written report of their research project. Thirteen of these reports have been written, suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Each student makes at least one oral or poster presentation of her/his work to a professional society. They also prepare a set of web pages that summarizes their data, explains their analysis, and communicates the general results of their research. All of these pages will be disseminated through the University's computing systems and made available via the Internet. These activities will continue throughout the duration of the grant. We will continue to work with the University's NSF Noyce scholarship program to provide participating students with the opportunity to influence their peers in local high schools. Students will likely expand their involvement with our partner, the US Forest Service and with the Agricultural Research Service. The research program is likely to be extended past the funding period, particularly our on-campus research program and our students' affiliation with the US Forest Service and the ARS. We are considering our next phase in this collaboration between the University and the agencies within the USDA.
Impacts
Assessments have clearly indicated that the participating students are becoming more knowledgeable about research in forest and range ecosystems and the issues affecting the management of those ecosystems. We hesitate to jump to the conclusion that they are more likely to consider professions in this field, but the little information that we have appears to suggest that to be the case. Again, assessment date collected from students who have worked with the US Forest Service indicate that those experiences have had particularly strong and positive impacts. The program also served as a springboard by which one of the Project Directors served as the Principal Investigator for a SMET proposal submitted by St. Edward's University and the Austin Independent School District. Although that project was not funded, it has served to strengthen the ties between the University and local schools.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/15/07 to 07/14/08
Outputs
The project is designed to further knowledge of forest and range ecosystems, to engage undergraduate students in challenging research projects, and to facilitate their subsequent service in field internships with the USDA's Forests Service. The project staff has established several goals for the project, and continued to meet or exceed all of them. The research projects require each of the students to successfully complete a course called Research Methods in which they developed a research plan. This course provides students with an important framework in the review of literature related to their research and in the design of their project. The research plans are the responsibility of the individual students; however they collaborate and review each other's draft plans during the development process to ensure the quality of their work. Since the project's inception, it has helped to facilitate two beneficial changes in the institution. First, it has spawned yet another member of the departmental faculty to obtain external funding (over $200,000 over three years from a private foundation) for student faculty research collaboration in fields related to agriculture and human health. Second, it has led project staff to consider modifications to the current curriculum, by which the staff would add courses in soil science so that students might be better able to compete for careers in resource management with USDA agencies. It is clear that there have been considerable changes in the students' academic and research abilities. The project staff has collected information on a variety of measurable characteristics including their understanding of scientific research, their familiarity with issues and careers in forest and rangeland management, and their ability to critique scientific papers. Through this program, the project staff has also collected a sizeable amount of student information, and those data suggest a substantial change in their abilities and attitudes. The project staff will continue to collect data, as planned, several times during and after their experiences to measure their academic growth as the project progresses. PRODUCTS: The project staff has produced a web-based assessment tool to measure student progress toward meeting the objectives of the project. Each participant has completed several assessments designed to measure basic information about the students' status at the beginning of project activities and through their experiences in the program. The project has modified these instruments and used modifications of others as they continue to collect information during and after the project. This will allow the staff to determine the effectiveness of the project. The project staff has also developed a plan of action by which they will join forces with personnel from the Superior National Forest to recruit program participants, and other St. Edward's students, for internships and careers with the Forest Service. The staff of this project has met extensively with the US Forest Service Hispanic Internship Coordinator for USFS Region III. One of those meetings was in collaboration with the Assistant Supervisor of the Superior National Forest in Region 9. Six undergraduate participants that conducted research with the Project Directors in the summer of 2008 have produced written reports of their work. They will all be recruited into field internships at various sites within the Forest Service in the summer of 2009. Five of the six who conducted research in 2007 presented the results of their work at a regional meeting in 2008. One of them won an award for the quality of her work. The project is currently on target for almost all of the first ten items of the project's timeline and the project staff anticipates that the program will continue to meet and exceed the attainment of the established benchmarks as we progress into our third and final year. OUTCOMES: Over the first two years of this program, a total of nineteen students have participated in either research projects, US Forest Service internships or both. The project staff had hoped to have twelve such participants at this point. Although two students did not follow their research experience with an internship at the US Forest Service, three additional students did serve in such internships. In the past year alone, sixteen undergraduate students and one high school student participated in the program, rather than the twelve undergraduates that had been targeted. Thus, the projected exceeded the goal by serving 41 percent more students than we had planned. The project staff had not set a specific goal of including a high school student in our research program. Rather, her inclusion came as an unexpected outcome of our outreach efforts to middle and high schools. Six of the sixteen undergraduates and the high school student worked on original research projects with the Project Directors. Two other undergraduates worked on original research projects on the St. Edward's campus with other faculty members within the department. Seven undergraduates worked in internships with the USDA Forest Service in the Superior National Forest of Minnesota. One undergraduate worked on an original research project with the USDA Agricultural Research Service in Houston, Texas. Of the seventeen students described above, eight are Hispanic-American, four are Asian-American, and five are Caucasian-American, Non-Hispanic. In that regard, the project staff has exceeded their goal again, in providing opportunities for students from a wider variety of ethnic backgrounds than we had targeted. Fifteen of the undergraduates are majoring in Biology, and the high school student is considering a similar career. The undergraduates have completed one to four years of undergraduate work. All are considering careers in natural resource management and research. Each of the nine on-campus participants who worked on independent research projects with St. Edward's faculty were supervised by one of the two Project Directors (seven of the nine students) or their colleagues within the department (two students). All of these faculty mentors guided the students as they develop the research project, assisted them in the field data collection, and provide guidance in the analysis of data collected. An alumna of the College Assistance Migrant Program who completed four internships while earning a Bachelor of Science in Biology at the institution is also working with all of these students in every phase of their projects. DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: Posters describing the program have been designed, produced, and distributed across the University. Opportunities available under the grant have also been distributed via the University's marketing department, through alumni publications, via the student newspaper, and through the University's internal information system. Web pages describing the program are currently underdevelopment and will be disseminated later this year. The first set of student papers and web pages will be disseminated in early 2008. Dr. Quinn has presented the design of the project at two meetings of the Texas Coalition of Hispanic Serving Institutions and at the 2007 annual meeting of the Texas Academy of Science. FUTURE INITIATIVES: The participating students are collecting field data as a part of their research experience. When they have collected and analyzed all of their data, each student will produce a written report of their research project. This report will be formatted to be suitable for publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Each student will make one oral or poster presentation of her/his work to a professional society. They will also prepare a set of web pages that summarizes their data, explains their analysis, and communicates the general results of their research. The staff will also prepare a set of web pages that communicates the progress of the project. All of these pages will be disseminated through the University's computing systems and made available via the Internet. The students that are involved in this program will participate in a USDA sponsored career workshop in Kingsville, Texas. Stipends will be provided to all six of these students in the form of academic scholarships. According to that timeline, in the near future the project staff will complete Phase II of the project evaluation plan and establish outreach efforts by which the participating students will disseminate their experiences to students in local middle and high schools. The research program is likely to be extended past the funding period. Under the good graces of the US Forest Service, the project staff hopes that the internship component of the project will also be extended.
Impacts
When the students began their participation with this project, the staff measured their understanding of the scientific research process and their familiarity with published research in their field and with contemporary issues in forest and rangeland resource management. These assessments have shown considerable improvement in student knowledge, skills, and aptitudes for all of the students who have participated so far in research projects. In addition, other assessments have shown very large, positive impacts of the program's internships with the US Forest Service on student career intentions. Preliminary review of those assessments show that we have again exceeded our goal, this time in recruiting and retaining students to careers in natural resource management. Of the seven students that served in internships, all seven are considering continuing their work with the Forest Service in the future. That exceeds yet another goal, this time of attracting 40 percent of our participants to careers in agriculture. Anecdotal information has indicated that the participating students are becoming more knowledgeable about research in forest and range ecosystems and the issues affecting the management of those ecosystems. The project staff hesitates to jump to the conclusion that they are more likely to consider professions in this field, but the little information that we have appears to suggest that to be the case.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 07/15/06 to 07/14/07
Outputs
Six undergraduate students have participated in the program in its first year. Of the six, four are Hispanic-American, one is Asian-American, and one is Caucasian-American, Non-Hispanic. All are majoring in Biology, and have completed at least two years of undergraduate work. Each participant is working on an independent research project supervised by one of the two Project Directors. The PD's guide the students as they develop the research project, assist them in the field data collection, and provide guidance to the analysis of data collected. An alumna of our College Assistance Migrant Program who completed four internships while earning a BS in Biology at the institution is also working with all of the students in every phase of their projects. Their research projects have required each of the students to successfully complete a course in the Spring, 2007 semester called Research Methods in which they developed a research plan. The course provided students with an
important framework in the review of literature related to their research and in the design of their project. The research plans were the responsibility of the individual students; however they have collaborated and reviewed each other's draft plans during the development process to ensure the quality of their products and analysis. There have not been any significant changes in the institution since the program's inception. However, it is still too early to tell if there have been any considerable changes in the students' academic and research abilities. We have collected information on a variety of measurable characteristics including: their understanding of scientific research, their familiarity with issues and careers in forest and rangeland management, and their ability to critique scientific papers. Although this program has collected a sizable amount of student information, the data collected does not yet indicate a change in the students because it is too early to confirm
academic development for these individuals. Data will be collected, as planned, several times during and after their experiences to measure their academic growth as the project progresses.
PRODUCTS: A web-based assessment tool used to measure student progress toward meeting the objectives of the project has been developed. Each participant has completed the survey once, which has provided basic information about the students' status at the beginning of the project activity. The same instrument will be used to collect information during and after the project. This will allow the staff to determine the effectiveness of the project. The staff of this project has met extensively with the US Forest Service Hispanic Internship Coordinator for USFS Region III. As a result, a plan has been developed to place all six student participants into field internships at various sites within the Forest Service in the summer of 2008. According to this plan, students will meet with the U.S. Forest Service Hispanic Internship Coordinator to refine their internship application in the Fall of 2007. The project is currently on target for all of the first ten items of the project's time line
and we anticipate that the program will continue to meet and exceed the attainment of the established benchmarks.
OUTCOMES: When the students began their participation with this project, the staff measured their understanding of the scientific research process and their familiarity with published research in their field and with contemporary issues in forest and rangeland resource management. Since this project is relatively new, the staff is gathering data to describe the future outcomes. From anecdotal information, it appears that all six students have increased their comprehension in these areas of interest. It also appears that all participants have increased their understanding of career options in agriculture.
DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES: The six participating students are current;y preparing research papers and web pages to disseminate the results of their research. In addition, all are making arrangements to present a summary pf their experiences to local middle and high school groups. Toward that end, four of the six have enrolled in the University's Teaching Scholars program, which will increase their contact with local school children.
FUTURE INITIATIVES: Beyond the funding period, we intend to build upon our experiences in leading research with these undergraduate students, and to continue our relationship with the United States Forest Service to place other students into internships. We intend to use this project to provide guidance and a model for six colleagues at the University to develop their own research/internship programs in partnership with federal, state and local agencies and with private entities.
Impacts
Anecdotal information has indicated that the participating students are becoming more knowledgeable about research in forest and range ecosystems and the issues affecting the management of those ecosystems. We hesitate to jump to the conclusion that they are more likely to consider professions in this field, but the little information that we have appears to suggest that to be the case.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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