This proposal will fund travel, subsistence expenses, publications and other administrative expenses for 14 undergraduate students to participate in a research oriented tropical biology program to take place at the Organization of Tropical Studies, (OTS), Costa Rica, under the auspices of Duke University. The award, that will fund approximately a third of the total participants, will allow undergraduate students from economically disadvantaged and underrepresented populations to participate in the project. They will be interacting with senior scientists and researchers, and will be exposed to hands-on learning in field-oriented research. This will allow the students the opportunity to be introduced to a diversity of tropical habitats, both natural and disturbed, the scientific principles that guide current research in tropical ecology, a variety of research techniques, and the representative environmental challenges facing developing tropical nations. Costa Rica is an ideal place for this activity because of the astonishing richness of ecosystems and biodiversity.
The goal of this activity is to improve the number and diversity of undergraduate students being provided with a quality tropical biology experience. Support from NSF will be an instrumental component in the effort to attract promising students to tropical ecology and to become familiar with development and conservation issues in the international arena.
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