Location
Green and Gold Room
Event Website
http://uenr.warnercnr.colostate.edu/
Start Date
3-23-2012 1:30 PM
End Date
3-23-2012 2:00 PM
Description
The PINEMAP Intern Program is part of the Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation Project, a coordinated agriculture project (CAP) recently awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). A major goal of this CAP was to use educational projects to both integrate the scientific disciplines and expand the science to students and educators. Our Intern Program is one of the projects meeting this education aim. Our broad goal was to develop a program that will engage undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research, education and, potentially, future graduate studies. Principle investigators and their graduate students from across PINEMAP’s 6 disciplinary areas will briefly train undergraduate researchers from universities across the southeastern US who will later return to their home institutions and share internship experiences and knowledge with public school students. In its first year, the program will fund 6 interns and then scale up to 18 interns over the following 3 years. From December to February, graduate students and undergraduates may submit, respectively, proposals for micro-grants (a proxy for intern stipends) and applications for internships. Interns will be paired with graduate student mentors based on interest in PINEMAP disciplinary areas. Undergraduate students accepting summer internships must participate in a distance education course the following fall semester. This course functions as a public communication class with a focus on creating inquiry-based lessons on forest resources and climate change targeting secondary public school students. Finally, interns may present their experiences with other colleagues and mentors at the spring PINEMAP annual meeting. Expected outcomes for interns are: increased understanding of and ability to conduct scientific research, improved communication skills, and an appreciation for professional interdisciplinary research. Graduate students selected to the program will: learn to be mentors, build interns’ research skills, and work with interns to educate secondary school students.
PINEMAP Intern Program: Integrating Undergraduates into Forest Resource and Climate Change Research and Education
Green and Gold Room
The PINEMAP Intern Program is part of the Pine Integrated Network: Education, Mitigation, and Adaptation Project, a coordinated agriculture project (CAP) recently awarded by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Agriculture and Food Research Initiative (AFRI). A major goal of this CAP was to use educational projects to both integrate the scientific disciplines and expand the science to students and educators. Our Intern Program is one of the projects meeting this education aim. Our broad goal was to develop a program that will engage undergraduate students in interdisciplinary research, education and, potentially, future graduate studies. Principle investigators and their graduate students from across PINEMAP’s 6 disciplinary areas will briefly train undergraduate researchers from universities across the southeastern US who will later return to their home institutions and share internship experiences and knowledge with public school students. In its first year, the program will fund 6 interns and then scale up to 18 interns over the following 3 years. From December to February, graduate students and undergraduates may submit, respectively, proposals for micro-grants (a proxy for intern stipends) and applications for internships. Interns will be paired with graduate student mentors based on interest in PINEMAP disciplinary areas. Undergraduate students accepting summer internships must participate in a distance education course the following fall semester. This course functions as a public communication class with a focus on creating inquiry-based lessons on forest resources and climate change targeting secondary public school students. Finally, interns may present their experiences with other colleagues and mentors at the spring PINEMAP annual meeting. Expected outcomes for interns are: increased understanding of and ability to conduct scientific research, improved communication skills, and an appreciation for professional interdisciplinary research. Graduate students selected to the program will: learn to be mentors, build interns’ research skills, and work with interns to educate secondary school students.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/9thBiennial/Sessions/13
Comments
Citation: Kidd, John B et al. 2012. PINEMAP Intern Program: Integrating Undergraduates into Forest Resource and Climate Change Research and Education. UENR 9th Biennial Conference. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cuenr/9thBiennial/Sessions/13/