URISE: Building a Community of Undergraduate Research in UAA Natural Sciences

The development of an interdisciplinary program for undergraduate students engaging in NASA-related research across the natural sciences at UAA is proposed. The goal of this program, Undergraduate Research and Interdisciplinary Science Exploration, or URISE, is to provide a research based undergraduate program to encourage engagement of students in research as a means to increase recruitment and retention of underrepresented undergraduate students in the natural sciences (astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics). The Alaska Space Grant Higher Education grant will provide funding for up to 15 undergraduate students by covering tuition for one credit of Individual Research and salary support for up to a three additional hours of research activity per week. The combination of these two sources of funding will facilitate the students participating in the URISE program and contributing meaningfully to their research project throughout the Fall 2019 semester. Under the URISE program, faculty mentors across the natural sciences will provide research opportunities for up to a total of 15 students (seven faculty have already committed to offering NASA-relevant research projects). URISE students will also simultaneously participate in a research-training program that will involve meeting every other week to engage in group activities such as presenting the goals of their research projects, summarizing a professional article relevant to their research, and a final presentation of their semester’s project outcomes. The group activities, which will be lead by one of three primary faculty coordinators, will aim to build a peer student learning community. Development of these group activities will occur prior to the start of the Fall 2019 semester, and the URISE program will be implemented in Fall 2019. Through engagement in research early in their college careers the program will aim to improve retention rates of underrepresented students in the natural sciences and provide training and mentoring to encourage students toward a wide range of future careers in the nature sciences, with particular emphasis on careers in the NASA workforce.