The Avila University REU Site will provide a research program for undergraduates during the summers of 2010 and 2012. Eight students will be selected each year to participate in an intensive 10-week research program in Kansas City, including three weeks of fieldwork in the West Indies. Each student will develop and implement a field-based research project dealing with some aspect of amphibian or reptilian natural history. Past projects have addressed such topics as behavior, microhabitat use, interactions with other species, and effects of habitat alterations on species abundance and diversity. Students are expected to prepare a report and submit it for publication in a professional journal. Complementing the research experience is a number of ancillary activities including seminars, workshops, and social functions. This program is supported by funds from the National Science Foundation?s Directorate of Biological Sciences and Office of International Science and Engineering. Additional information can be found at www.avila.edu/bobpowell/7powreu.htm, or by contacting the Project Director, Dr. Powell, at robert.powell@avila.edu or (816) 501-2440.
In 2010 and 2012, nine students and four faculty per year with NSF support plus a Botswanian student with private funding conducted research on the natural history of reptiles and amphibians on Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines (2010) and Eleuthera Island, Commonwealth of the Bahamas (2012). Of the 18 students with NSF support, four were Native Americans, three were Hispanic, ten were women, three were from community colleges, and four were from small institutions providing limited research opportunities. All students have or will be authors or co-authors of publications in peer-reviewed journals. As of June 2013, 14 papers and notes have been published, five more are in review, and an additional six are in various stages of preparation. Studies addressed subjects as varied as the adventitious scavenging of arthropod carcasses by Cuban Treefrog tadpoles, water loss rates in diminutive dwarf geckos, and the rediscovery of a species previously known from only two specimens taken on another island in the 1990s to correlations in Curly-tailed Lizards between laboratory performance criteria (e.g., endurance and maximum sprint speeds) to behaviors in nature (e.g., display frequencies and rates of movement). Broader impacts included the participation of the Botswanian student, whose involvement was triggered by previous work with one of the faculty members in a separate NSF-funded program conducted in Africa in 2011. In addition, students in the 2010 program worked in the field with personnel from the St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Department of Forestry to develop a conservation plan for a vital watershed on Union Island that contains the largest intact stand of old secondary forest anywhere in the Grenadines. Students also worked with local NGOs to promote conservation awareness on Union Island by developing educational materials for use in primary and secondary schools on the island. These were presented to school faculty and administrators while we were on Union. Additional instructional tools, including a PowerPoint presentation featuring the native amphibians and reptiles were developed and sent to school officials and NGOs after returning from the field. Students in the 2012 program on Eleuthera interacted with secondary students at the Island School that was situated adjacent to the Cape Eleuthera Institute where we were staying. Interactions included participation in a research conference featuring the work of students at the school during the previous semester and presenting reports on our own ongoing projects. Information developed by Island School students in previous years was helpful in developing some of our projects and in one instance resulted in the publication of a short note written by two of those students describing the consumption of a racer by a boa. Finally, copies of all publications are being sent to the SVG Department of Forestry and Union Island NGOs or the Cape Eleuthera Institute, Bahamas National Trust, and Bahamas Environment, Science & Technology (BEST) Commission.
