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Program NewsBiological Oceanography
/ Chemical Oceanography / Physical Integrative Programs Section
Focus on Undergraduate Faculty and EducationThe National Science Foundation supports undergraduate education in a wide variety of ways, but primarily the focus is on enabling undergraduates to experience research, improving the curriculum and facilities available for undergraduate education, and improving the research and pedagogical experience of the faculty who teach undergraduates. For Students: A long-standing program known as the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program supports Sites (for 10-15 students) and supplements (for 1-2 students) so that undergraduates can gain research experience. These sites and supplements are funded by every Division within NSF, creating research opportunities for thousands of students each year. Twenty OCE-funded REU Site Programs are underway this summer at oceanographic institutions across the country. If you teach undergraduates and are not aware of these opportunities for paid internships in ocean science research, please visit our web site at https://www.nsf.gov/home/crssprgm/reu/reuoce.htm. For any students who prefer a semester-long experience, Bermuda Biological Station and Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory in Alabama both run semester-long programs in the Fall. Drs. Russell Cuhel and Carmen Aguilar, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, coordinate a very successful program that encourages undergraduate participation in AGU and ASLO meetings by organizing a poster session for undergraduate research. As part of this effort, they bring REU students to a major Oceanographic meeting each year to present results of their summer research. In February 2002 about 29 students attended the AGU/ASLO Ocean Sciences Meeting in Hawaii. The King Kamehameha Award for best poster was won by Denise Akob (Smithsonian Environmental Research Center REU). These poster sessions are excellent ways to introduce undergraduates to the oceanographic research community and provide excellent recruitment opportunities for scientists and employers. For Curriculum and Laboratory Improvements and Undergraduate Faculty: NSF’s Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR) includes the Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/DUE/. This Division supports undergraduate science education in all disciplines supported by NSF. One of the DUE programs of most interest to undergraduate faculty is the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) program. CCLI seeks to improve the quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education for all students and targets activities affecting learning environments, course content, curricula, and educational practices. The program has three tracks:
For more details, including program solicitations and deadline information, visit the DUE website at http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/ehr/DUE/programs/ccli/ or contact Jill Singer (jsinger@nsf.gov), the program officer in charge of geoscience-related CCLI proposals. Under the CCLI program, a number of notable projects have been developed for geosciences. One of these is the second phase of the Faculty Institutes for Reforming Science Teaching through Field Stations (FIRST II) project (funded by NSF DUE #0088847). FIRST II is available as a resource for college faculty and research scientists who wish to gain experience in active, inquiry-based undergraduate science teaching that increases student learning. FIRST plans to offer workshops that model this kind of teaching at field stations, marine laboratories, or other field sites. FIRST sites will serve as focal points for the formation of coalitions of faculty who will implement and sustain reform in undergraduate biology, geology, and other science education in their colleges and universities. Each FIRST coalition has been initiated by teams of three faculty (the field station teams) who work with groups of three faculty from each of five institutions in their region (the institutional teams). The field station teams provide professional development activities to the institutional teams. In addition, field station teams will provide a mechanism for national dissemination of instructional practices, materials, and support systems for faculty interested in improving their teaching. Two marine laboratories are currently involved in FIRST: Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON) and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (OIMB). Other institutions include the University of Washington, Michigan State, Howard University, the U. of Akron, Michigan State University, San Diego State University and the Archbold Field Station. For a map of current FIRST coalitions, see the project website at http://www.first2.org. The FIRST II team leader at LUMCON is Chris Finelli. Chris is also a current OCE-CAREER awardee who considers FIRST to be a good potential source of information on education for colleagues who may be considering applying for Faculty Early Career Development program awards or who want to better integrate research and education activities. Participation in FIRST II could be an ideal way to learn about best practices in curriculum, pedagogy, and evaluation. Should you or any of your colleagues be interested in learning more about the FIRST II project, please encourage them to contact Chris directly (cfinelli@lumcon.edu). Other sources of information include the FIRST Project Principal Investigator Jan Hodder at the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology (jhodder@oimb.uoregon.edu) and coalition members at various FIRST sites around the country.
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