Projects and Grants per year
Grants and Contracts Details
Description
GP-GO: The Appalachian SUCCESS Program: Strengthening students classified as
Underrepresented in STEM by improving their Confidence, Curriculum and Enriching Sensing
Skillsets
Project Summary:
Our goal is to establish the Appalachian SUCCESS program, test effectiveness of the learning ecosystem
model guiding the program’s development and sustain an improved mentoring plan for Appalachian
students that is carried forward after the grant ends. We seek to increase Appalachian graduate student
access to geoscience training in the areas of karst and hyporheic science, develop student skills in the
area of sensor technology, and increase research opportunities for students which can open doors to
future research and career pathways. The program focuses on first year graduate students, and in some
cases undergrads in transition, at the University of Kentucky, Marshall University and Eastern Kentucky
University, which are Carnegie R1, R2 and M1 universities, respectively. The target group of students is
Appalachian students, who classify as underrepresented in STEM, because they face quantifiable
obstacles, such as hometown communities that are economically distressed, have secondary math and
science test scores that are persistently below national averages, and are often first-generation college
students with little or no family support. The students will be immersed in a 10-month-long program
designed using STEM learning ecosystem model. Components of the learning ecosystem model aim to:
build the students’ confidence through working with the tri-university cohort of students learning about
sensor technology in geoscience; engage the students’ family and community in their curriculum so the
two-way transfer of information both builds the graduate students confidence and allows them to see the
potentially transformative impact of their work on family members and K-12 learning; help the students
learn critical thinking that can be used in graduate school; help them explore and define their own
geoscience interests and/or specializations to works towards a career plan; prepare them for future work
in collaborative team and interdisciplinary scientific settings; and conduct independent research projects
using advanced sensor instrumentation.
This funding is needed so we can test and refine our learning ecosystem model, by retaining the valuable
components of the model, and move forward a sustainable mentoring plan that teaches Appalachian
students the newest technological skillset, networks students with industry and government agencies, and
helps develop students’ soft skills needed for success in their careers.
Intellectual Merit: The intellectual merit of the project is to contribute to the scientific and education
literature regarding high resolution sensing of earth’s processes while providing first year graduate
students with sensing skills to improve their success rate in graduate school and their STEM careers.
Students will learn high resolution sensing of water and its solutes in soils, karst and non-karst vadose
zones, sediments of hyporheic zones, streams, rivers and lakes. Sensor technology and the
cyberinfrastructure surrounding its use will be advanced as students work with the most state-of-the-art
water sensors. Students will perform research with sensors that measure water quality parameters
including pH, DO, specific conductance, temperature, turbidity, nutrients, chlorophyll and phycocyanin.
Students will perform research using twelve sensor platforms across three universities set up for studying
karst springs, first order streams, third order streams, and the Ohio River. Smaller scale sites will allow
focus on a specific water pathways associated with the landscape while larger scale sites such as the
Ohio River will allow study of how transported nutrients impact downstream algal blooms. The sites will
also assist with answering scientific questions regarding phosphorous loading and temporary retention in
the streams.
Broader Impacts: The broader impacts are a blueprint for a learning ecosystem model for the
Appalachian SUCCESS program will be tested and refined; Appalachian graduate students will have
better access to graduate school in STEM; family engagement and two-way learning will be
accomplished; middle- and high-school students from Appalachia will learn about successful geoscience
careers; and 12 Appalachian, first year graduate students will participate as part of this program.
Appalachian students classify as underrepresented in STEM, and specifically we will target students from
the counties that are classified as distressed by the Appalachian Regional Commission. Students from
Appalachian communities are, statistically, economically distressed, have secondary math and science
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test scores that are persistently below national averages, and are largely often first-generation college
students. In addition, quantitative evidence has shown Appalachian students avoid moving far from their
hometown and have anxiety towards post-baccalaureate degrees attributed to family pressures. We aim
to build a bridge for Appalachian students that can smoothly transition them to graduate schools with
geoscience MS and PhD programs. The broader impacts will be further realized when we sustain our
Appalachian SUCCESS program.
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Status | Active |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 9/1/21 → 8/31/25 |
Funding
- National Science Foundation
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Projects
- 1 Active
-
GP-GO: The Appalachian SUCCESS Program: Strengthening Students Classified as Underrepresented in STEM by Improving Their Confidence, Curriculum and Enriching Sensing Skillsets
Fox, J. (PI) & Ford, W. (CoPI)
9/1/21 → 8/31/25
Project: Research project