This award from the Division of Chemistry at the National Science Foundation supports a Research Experiences for Undergraduate (REU) Site led by Professors Ben Jang and Allan Headley both of Texas A&M University-Commerce. The Site will provide interdisciplinary research opportunities for a diverse population of community college students in geographically isolated Northeast Texas. Students are drawn from rural areas and are unlikely to have a research opportunity before committing to their chosen career paths. There are 23 community colleges with total enrollment of over two hundred thousand in Northeast Texas that serve rural, urban, and suburban undergraduate students. Approximately 50,000 of these students currently enroll in science courses and yet most do not proceed to college graduation with a STEM degree. This program will target ten student researchers per year based not only on GPAs, but also on the recommendation of the instructors, work ethics, ability to persevere, laboratory skills, and problem solving abilities with special emphasis given to the recruitment of underrepresented groups enrolled in the community colleges in this region. This proposed project will also recruit students in the neighboring areas in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana, which enrolls about 1.0 million community college students. The experiences and momentum gained from the previous REU programs will help to expand the impact on the undergraduate researchers participating in the proposed program. All students will complete basic laboratory and project-based instrumentation training followed by intensive work with faculty mentors on several newly designed collaborative research projects, which will accelerate the development of critical research areas. This will include biweekly oral presentations, progress reports, a final symposium including both oral and poster presentations, and a final report. To better expose students to real world research, two trips to world class companies and institutions that have proven effective in the previous REUs and will be continued.
The REU site will serve as a model for addressing undergraduate research issues among a diverse group of underserved community college students, an important population in the higher education pipeline for STEM enrollments and one that is steadily growing nationwide. The project will not only serve this underserved region but also attract underrepresented groups including female, Hispanic, African American, Native American, and economically disadvantaged students. In addition, non-science majors taking science courses will be exposed to STEM disciplines through exciting information and knowledge presented by mentors and students.
