Technical: This project will fund and engage 9 minority graduate students (GK-12 Fellows) per year to build their science and teaching portfolios and develop leadership and teaching skills, ultimately preparing top scholars in environmental, geological, and biological sciences. The Fellows will serve as role models and instructors in Early College High School (ECHS) classes in a predominantly Hispanic community. The ECHS is an innovative program that enables students to earn up to two years of college credit in addition to their high school diploma, and provides them with skills to increase their success in college. ECHS students will benefit from interacting with GK-12 Fellows in their classrooms, from teacher training to improve long-term capacities for interdisciplinary science , and from the development of lesson plans in ?Science for a Sustainable Future? focused on the arid southwest. The proposed ?Scientists in Residence? program may serve as a scalable model for recruiting students into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
This proposal will actively recruit minority graduate students and will train them to be scientists, instructors, and leaders of the future. With its growing Ph.D. programs, top faculty, and current demographic, UTEP is poised to lead the way for training minority Ph.D. future scientists and leaders, and will allow for the students to address specific challenges facing our border, desert populations, including limited water resources in a changing climate, the potential for alternative energy resources, environmental health issues in a multi-national community, and geological hazards facing the region.
