A new clean laboratory (500 sq. ft.) will be built at The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)'s Indio Mountains Research Station (IMRS). This laboratory will be devoted to lab research activities and for storing systematic collections of local fauna. The further expansion of the facilities at IMRS will enhance the station’s ability to house and service ecology and biology research, outreach, and accommodate educational student groups. The clean building is necessary for activities required today by cutting-edge science projects. IMRS has an important function educating persons at all levels of scientific study in the El Paso region, especially its high number of underrepresented Hispanics, which is a key factor when developing programs to best serve the regional community. The services associated with the new building will enable us to expand our present programs and provide opportunities to more researchers, middle school teachers and students, community college personnel, and university level educational groups interested on aspects of the northern Chihuahuan Desert, which is one probably of the least studied deserts in North America. Located next to the Mexican border and a large urban area, a modern IMRS will become a major player in ecological investigations and conservation practices.
The Chihuahuan Desert has few areas with unrestricted access to places significantly conductive to field oriented research and education. IMRS provides a much needed venue for conducting those types of activities in mostly undisturbed terrestrial and aquatic environments. This new clean laboratory will improve the efficiency of current researchers and student projects. Additionally, the new laboratory will increase IMRS's ability to better serve groups of researchers, educational, and outreach personnel. UTEP, with IMRS being its major field investigation facility, is a foremost educator of underrepresented Hispanics in science and technology. It's enrollment of about 25,000 include over 72% Hispanic students, with a majority female. Teachers and future teachers involved in IMRS activities will have a big impact on the scientific competence of K-12 students enrolled in their classrooms and should increase interests in minority students electing to go into scientific disciplines at higher educational levels. The new facility improvement will allow UTEP's IMRS to serve and increase the competency of more people interested in Chihuahuan Desert studies by providing needed clean lab space and fulfill the demands of an R1 research university. www.utep.edu/indio/
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.
