Proposal No.: 9732609 PI: Steenhuis University: Cornell U ABSTRACT This proposal seeks to engage underrepresented minorities and women in research on watershed development and engineering at Cornell University with cooperation of Alabama A&M, Florida A&M, Clark Atlanta University and the University of Puerto Rico. The philosophy of the proposed program will be to engage students in the forming of a question or hypothesis, planning of a method to answer the question or test the hypothesis, critically analyzing the results, drawing conclusions, and presenting the findings. The focus is on those problems within the watershed that have biological and/or environmental components. For this, we will initiate an interdisciplinary approach which involves faculty with background in either biological, environmental or soil sciences. Topics will include the experimental and simulation studies of the movement of agri-chemicals, organisms (such as Cryptosporidium) and other chemicals through the landscape, the reduction of nitrogen in animal feeds, composting, and the effect of municipal sludges on metal mobility. The integration of these student projects on a watershed scale will be emphasized during the weekly meetings. A summer REU Program is proposed for ten students. We have also included a possibility for the summer REU students to continue their research at the home institutions. A structured setting for students during the summer Program will be established, which includes: (1) an introductory session that discusses the critical elements of a research program (2) a weekly seminar with formal presentations by faculty mentors and REU Fellows, dealing with the topic of watershed scale integration of the studies, and general topics (libraries, bibliographic databases, computing resources, critical analysis of the approach, basics of experimental design, and opportunities for graduate programs), (3) regular meetings with the faculty mentor at least twice a week, (4) a discussion during week 7 in which the REU students present their progress to the group, and (5) a final presentation during week 10 in a department-wide setting. Also, various group building activities will be organized. Proposed is an aggressive recruitment procedure to expand the pool of minorities that benefit from the REU experience. The project is a cooperative effort between Cornell and Alabama A&M and involves the participation of three more minority universities in recruitment and mentoring during the academic year.
