Research Initiation Awards (RIAs) provide support for junior faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) who are starting to build a research program, as well as for mid-career faculty who need to re-direct and re-build a research program. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the researcher's home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences.
The research initiation project from Alabama A&M University (AAMU) will overhaul undergraduate student instruction in six existing fish and wildlife courses that compose a concentration area in an accredited forestry program at a historically black university to improve performance on student learning outcomes. Course content will become substantial portions of learning modules to be designed and made available on Blackboard Learn®, an on-line instructional support program. Class time will consist of performing quantitative and written assignments. Specific activities include making all lecture notes and assignments available on-line and developing, or expanding existing, quantitative homework assignments into lab experiments and field exercises requiring technically written research reports.
These activities constitute an evaluation of the merits of a relatively new teaching pedagogy (inverting the classroom) designed to increase performance on existing student learning outcomes related to achievement of quantitative and communication competencies. Experiential learning has the potential to improve quantitative problem solving and communication competencies to increase undergraduate success in wildlife biology.
The activities will likely improve student learning outcomes in existing academic programs (minors) in Fisheries and Wildlife Biology disciplines where minority participation is extremely low (less than 1%). As an NSF Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) jurisdiction, this project broadens participation geographically as well as through efforts to attract and retain underrepresented minority students in biological and ecological sciences. The project leverages previous investments in course development and improvement from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA). Project outcomes will be disseminated broadly.
