Undergraduate Research Center of Central Virginia: Planning Grant Proposal

Sweet Briar College, Sweet Briar VA

Investigators

Abstract

The award from the Chemistry Division supports an Undergraduate Research Centers (URC) planning grant. The PI is Robert Granger. The co-PIs are John Beck of Sweet Briar College, Henry Schreiber of Virginia Military Institute, Herbert Sipe of Hampton-Sydney College and Erich Uffelman of Washington and Lee University. In addition to these four institutions, three others will be involved in establishing a regional Undergraduate Research Center: Lynchburg College, Randolph-Macon Women's College and Hollins University. Participation of a community college and a high school is also planned. One of the planning goals is to develop a detailed management plan of action for obtaining their goals which include promoting reforms in culture and curriculum at participating institutions, assessing infrastructure needs, fostering collaborations with industry, graduate institutions and 2-year institutions, and maintenance of their collective resources and instrumentation. Undergraduate research opportunities will be increased for first and second year students by reforms in curricula to include more inquiry-based learning. The summer research program at these institutions will grow and partnerships with industry will support summer internships and cooperative experiences. The project includes a K-12 science teacher education component, including the participation of both in-service and pre-service teachers. The URC consortium will disseminate their results and their pedagogy via publications and presentations at meetings, including the Journal of Undergraduate Chemistry Research, which is published by VMI.