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Submitted Activity 2 Abstracts

Abstracts for submitted proposals for Activity 2: Integration of Multidisciplinary Research and Creative Activities into the Learning Experience can be found below, listed alphabetically by name.
 

 
 
Adapted Research Papers for Teaching
Adapted primary literature (APL) in high-school and early-college science education is a new teaching movement, as explained and illustrated by the special 2009 issue of the journal, Research in Science Education. This approach is more likely to teach the nature of research scholarship which is not ordinarily emphasized in textbooks (McComas et al., 1998). We add that in Tier 1 institutions such as Texas A&M incorporating such instruction would add to the professionalism in our curricula.
 
We propose to create a library of adapted peer-reviewed published research reports to supplement undergraduate teaching in all campus academic courses in which traditional content is developed through scholarly research. The principal approaches and benefits of our proposal will extend beyond science and engineering to any academic discipline based on scholarly publications. We will orchestrate the re-writing of original research reports to match the knowledge level of typical undergraduates. This initiative provides a flexible and low-cost way for professors to increase the richness and depth of their traditional collegiate teaching. As an example of broad applicability, the PI recently conducted a workshop on this teaching innovation for the TAMU Center for Teaching Excellence. One attendee was a professor in architecture, who became enthusiastic about using this approach in his own teaching.  Likewise, the idea was well-received by secondary school teachers in last summer’s workshops given by the PI for a UT M.D. Anderson program (see http://k12summerinstitute.mdanderson.org/home/)
 
We would create an on-line library of adapted original research reports, not reviews or summaries, to show students authentic scholarship and engage them in creative and critical thinking. Each adapted paper maintains the structure and style of the original scholarly writing but adjusted to the conceptual understanding, reading level, vocabulary and mathematical skill of undergraduate college students.
 
This proposal budgets honoraria funds for current faculty members to perform initial manuscript adaptations and peer reviews to use in debriefing sessions. Our editorial team will provide instructions, assistance, final editing, and construction of the on-line library on the TAMU Chapter of Sigma Xi web site.
 
Support from the existing PEER program of the College of Veterinary Medicine will allow the college-level APL lessons to be further adapted into Texas TEKs standards-based lesson plans for use by secondary schools through the state and nation.
 
Advanced Photonics Program
The main objective of the proposed program is to integrate unique human resources, in-depth expertise, and advanced experimental facilities available at the College of Science, College of Engineering, and College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences into an innovative platform for learning experience for undergraduate and graduate students at Texas A&M University. This program is designed to be unique on the international scale and will engage at least 50 graduate students and a significant number of undergraduate students from the three colleges per academic year. The proposed program will be based on the existing strong crossdisciplinary collaboration between the three TAMU colleges and will integrate active research with novel educational activities in innovative methods of ultrafast optical science, optical bioimaging, biomedical optical diagnostics, optical standoff detection for homeland security, environment protection, food safety, neurophotonics, optical biosensing, and nanophotonics. The engagement of students in unique collaborative research programs will be supported by curriculum activities, including a new lecture course on advanced methods of photonics, crosslisted lecture courses on biophotonics and bioimaging, rotation of students between the colleges, and a weekly intercollege scientific seminar, providing methodological talks, tutorials, and talks on the scientific breakthroughs in the field. The learning outcomes of the proposed program will include the cognitive competency of students in the multidisciplinary field of advanced photonics, knowledge and comprehension of the fundamentals of innovative methods and tools of photonics, as well as the ability to apply these methods in ultrafast optical science, optical bioimaging, optical standoff detection, optical biosensing, and nanophotonics.
 
Aggie Undergraduate Genomics Corps (AUGC)
We propose to create a sustainable community of undergraduate scholars, the Aggie Undergraduate Genomics Corps (AUGC), with specialized training in cutting-edge bioinformatics, computational genomics and enhanced research experiences. AUGC candidates will be recruited from freshmen interested in the life sciences. A summer Computational Genomics Boot Camp will be developed and taught by a consortium of faculty and staff from two existing university entities: the Whole Systems Genomics Initiative and the Center for Phage Technology. The top Boot Camp graduates would then become AUGC members. These student genomicists will facilitate genomics or bioinformatics research campus-wide and aid in the development of novel teaching activities, including, but not restricted to web-based instructional tools for faculty. Importantly, implementation of these tools will quickly and directly impact hundreds of non-AUGC undergraduates and graduate students system-wide. Juniors and Seniors will be required to do at least one year of 491 research so as to spread their expertise across campus. AUGC members will continue to interact during all years of their undergraduate experience. This peer-to-peer interaction will cement and enhance the learning experience. Knowledge generated will be documented via a Genomics Learning Community web site so as to provide sustainable expertise and continuity. At steady state we expect that hundreds of undergraduates will be impacted by the AUGC activities, with about ninety students per year being members of the AUGC. The AUGC will be the catalyst for a new educational paradigm that leverages specialist learning communities to enhance scholarship at Texas A&M University.
 
Applied Biodiversity Science Program
We seek to enhance undergraduate participation in the Applied Biodiversity Science (ABS) Program, a multidisciplinary community of scholars at Texas A&M, supported by an NSF-IGERT grant, dedicated to understanding and solving the challenges of biodiversity conservation. The ABS NSF-IGERT grant currently supports the research and training of doctoral students in 11 departments and 5 colleges. We are requesting support for the ABS Program Coordinator and scholarships for undergraduate participation in Study Abroad courses taught by ABS Faculty, small grants for undergraduate research, scholarships for doctoral students for the Amazon Field School, and travel funds.
 
The ABS Program supports a multidisciplinary array of courses, international research experiences, and extramural activities, open to all students and faculty at TAMU. The Program already engages >100 undergraduates in Study Abroad and independent research activities. More than 50 graduate students participate in annual ABS Program activities. We will use components of the ABS Program to guide undergraduate students on a multidisciplinary learning path.
 
Opportunities for undergraduates include: the ABS Journal Club, ABS Seminar Series, Student Research Week, the Ecological Integration Symposium, and ABS Film Series. We propose to create a newFoundations in Applied Biodiversity Science undergraduate course. Students will have the opportunity to be mentored by ABS faculty and doctoral students in field sites throughout Latin American, Africa, and the U.S.  Undergraduates will enroll in any of seven existing Study Abroad courses taught by ABS Faculty. The Amazon Field School is a Ph.D. course, and undergraduates can take this study abroad alongside doctoral students.
 
The Bastrop Fires: Understanding Sociological and Environmental Impacts
This is a research/teaching collaboration between scholars from Sociology and Ecosystem Science Management (ESSM) that will give students the opportunity to study, observe, interview, and volunteer in the areas ravaged by the Bastrop fires.  Recovery from the fires will take many years but this effort will provide opportunities for students to study the early impacts the fire has had on the residents and the ecosystem and to monitor the recovery. Since natural disasters affect ecosystems and the people who live in or depend upon them for an extended time, it is likely that opportunities for this collaborative program will continue in the future. Students from three Sociology and two ESSM courses, volunteers from ESSM, and students participating in independent research, will learn the methods of their respective disciplines and learn to apply them in the field through a series of visits to Bastrop. Students will learn how to collect and analyze data from field observations and interviews using innovative tools, and how to write up their findings based on relevant literature. Graduate Sociology students will learn qualitative visual methods giving them additional analytical skills.  ESSM students will conduct research related to the condition and recovery of the ecosystem. Students will use iPads, digital recorders and digital cameras to document impact and recovery and to develop class presentations. Undergraduate research scholars will further develop these data into their theses. Students from the two disciplines will engage in dialogue through facilitated group presentations to one another.Volunteer work will be coordinated with property owners, AmeriCorps, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and State Forest personnel in Bastrop.
 
Bilingual Voices of Texas
This proposal aims to integrate multidisciplinary research activities into the learning experience of graduate and undergraduate students through their participation in a collaborative research project involving faculty from four academic units in two different colleges (Liberal Arts and Education and Human Development). The project aims to elicit, preserve and make available as a digital archive oral histories from bilingual Texans conveying their linguistic and cultural experiences associated with using two languages.  This open-source archive will be of benefit to students, researchers, policymakers and the community at large, thereby helping to fulfill TAMU’s commitment to diversity and community engagement.  In its initial stages the project will focus on Spanish-English bilingual speakers in the Brazos Valley.  Later, it will expand to other bilingual communities in Texas, including those in urban centers.
 
Graduate and undergraduate students in Spanish, Hispanic Studies, Psychology, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Teaching, Learning and Culture will participate directly in all stages of project development. The collection and analysis of oral histories will engage students’ critical thinking, increase their sociocultural sensitivity, and develop their communication and second language skills. The creation of a digital archive will in turn enhance the learning experience of future generations of students as well as provide resources for scholars and policymakers with respect to the experiences of bilinguals in the linguistically diverse state of Texas.
 
Certificate Program in Public Health Entomology
The proposed undergraduate certificate program in Public Health Entomology will provide concentration of subject-matter focusing on the roles of arthropods in the direct and indirect transmission and causation of diseases in humans and will involve the collaboration of the College of Agriculture & Life Sciences with the College of Veterinary Medicine and BioMedical Sciences.  The certificate program will consist of 16 credit hours comprised of courses from our two colleges.  The curriculum is designed to respond to growing student interest in this subject matter and growing employment demand in public health.  Students will receive an integrated educational experience culminating in a new capstone course that integrates elements from foundation courses into a case study-based, critical thinking experiential course called Disease Ecology.  We anticipate this certificate program will enhance opportunities for students entering graduate programs, professional schools, and employment.  Students in this program will gain knowledge and skills in critical thinking processes about complex relationships in vector-pathogen-host-landscape interactions that impact a diversity of global communities.  Students will work collaboratively to develop ecologically based, socially responsible public health response plans, to communicate effectively with lay and scientific audiences, and demonstrate competencies to work with scientists and practitioners in public health.  These elements match the recommendations for undergraduate education outlined in the Teaching & Learning Roadmap of the TAMU Academic Master Plan. 
 
Certificate Training Program in Food Insecurity and Obesity
Over the past decade, increasing national attention has focused on the paradoxical relationship between food insecurity (hunger) and obesity. As the nation continues to expand its waistline, the incidence of hunger also has increased. Efforts have focused on understanding the complex relationship among these two societal problems. There is a critical need for interdisciplinary researchers who are capable of understanding the multidimensional factors involved in order to unravel the paradox and provide solutions to both societal problems. We propose developing a graduate level research training program to help meet workforce demands for science, education, and outreach (within academia, industry, the public sector, and government), which to date have been lacking. Undergraduate (but not graduate) research is often systematically delivered using an apprenticeship style model; advisors who coach, provide guidance, and feedback to students. One unique aspect of our study is to adapt and implement this apprenticeship model at the graduate student level. This will meet the project goal of providing targeted and enhanced multidisciplinary (food science, health/kinesiology, nutrition, agricultural economics and sociology) educational and training experiences that equip graduate students not only in course theory and practice but in the creation of high quality research proposals, through a multidisciplinary seminar series integrated with select courses. Our hypothesis is that the apprenticeship model will prepare future interdisciplinary researchers, skilled in proposal writing, who will develop successful multidisciplinary funded research programs that address the paradox of food insecurity and obesity. This will benefit vulnerable populations.
 
CORE (Community Outreach & Responsibility in Education) Program
Our response to this RFP integrates the community minded spirit of Texas A&M students into the curriculum to foster multidisciplinary interactions necessary to address societal challenges.  The goal of the CORE Program is to improve undergraduate student learning, faculty participation, and community impact by engaging A&M students within local community originated, service learning projects.  The local community will be solicited for service-based project topics that will be developed into project ideas by students in the Colleges of Engineering’s and Liberal Arts’ jointly offered engineering ethics course.  Developed project ideas will be introduced to freshmen students across campus in introductory courses through a social marketing platform.  The platform will enable the freshmen students to vote on projects they wish to see supported and carried out in the community.  The projects will then be carried out through the existing Engineering Projects in Community Service course; a horizontally (across disciplines) and vertically (across graduation years) integrated course within the College of Engineering that will be opened to students from across campus.  Students involved in the CORE Program will develop awareness of problems within the community, develop projects to address the recognized problems, be empowered to take action by voting on projects that will receive funding, and will participate in carrying out the funded projects. Each year thousands of students from across campus, scores of A&M faculty and staff, and many community members will be positively impacted by the CORE Program.
 
Cross Disciplinary Program in Entrepreneurship
In response to major societal shifts in business and employment practices, more than 2,000 college and universities in the United States, about two-thirds of the total, now offer a course in entrepreneurship. A smaller but growing number have entire sequences leading to an undergraduate minor, a master's in entrepreneurship, or something similar. In this white paper, we are proposing a cross-disciplinary program in entrepreneurship initially between the Colleges of Engineering (COE), Business (COB), and Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science (CVM) in which students can obtain this interdisciplinary skill set leading toward an entrepreneurship certificate.  The shifting landscape of new business ventures has created a need to prepare students with knowledge of venture capital, intellectual property, business plan preparation, and small business funding opportunities.  The following proposal puts forth a four course sequence that can be stacked to reach both undergraduate and graduate students. The final course is an experiential learning opportunity that will occur in a faculty member’s lab or at an industry partner that will focus on a project that nurtures the innovation ecosystem. Another feature of the program will be a Venture Planning project course in which students will present a development plan for technologies developed at Texas A&M.
 
Design of Online Virtual Labs for Physics Classes
A multitude of courses across disciplines require visual and interactive hands-on explanations of the course material. Typically, the hands-on material is delivered via laboratories, while the bulk of the information is presented in a classroom setting on the board. We propose to develop “Virtual Labs” that consist of examples, interactive class demonstrations and educational games based on the HTML5 internet standard, with the goal of delivering a more engaging classroom experience that enhances the comprehensibility of the presented concepts. Furthermore, by using virtual laboratories, departments can save considerable funds on equipment, as well as teaching assistant FTEs. The Virtual Labs will be developed in a modular fashion that allows instructors to expand and design further modules. The use of the HTML5 standard ensures that the Virtual Labs can be accessed via any standard web browser, as well as iOs (such as iPhone and iPad) and Android devices. Impact: At first, the Virtual Labs will be developed for the Physics & Astronomy Department with a focus on the 200 series courses taken by approximately 5800 students each year. Being a collaborative effort between the Physics & Astronomy Department and the Visualization Department at Texas A&M, the proposal also impacts several Visualization classes with a in- and out-of-classroom experience. A pilot for PHYS202 will be developed in the first year and then expanded to ASTR101 and ASTR111 (approx. 1200 students) in year two to ensure an experiential component beyond the classroom setting. Deployment to other courses will be done in the third year of the proposal which will directly impact over 7000 students per year.
 
Developing a Capstone Course in Environmental, Health, and Safety and Compliance
As a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant university, the built environment at Texas A&M provides a novel opportunity for students to directly engage the systems necessary to support the activities of a modern university.  Practically speaking this university is an industrial complex with many infrastructure components that are regulated by state and federal requirements for environmental health and safety (e.g. utilities, underground storage tanks, hazardous waste), as well as, some systems and activities that are uncommon or even unique to this campus (e.g. biodigestor).  The objective of this proposal is to create a capstone course that allows students from environmental science majors to gain direct experience with both the compliance requirements and daily operations associated with regulated entities on campus. The Bioenvironmental Sciences (BESC) and Environmental Studies (ENST) degrees within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the Environmental Geosciences (ENGS) and Environmental Studies (ENST) degrees within the College of Geosciences all include high proportions of students with interests in careers associated with regulatory compliance.  In particular, our many students seek to enter environmental consulting, regulatory enforcement, or environmental health and safety compliance positions.  Given the breadth of responsibilities in these fields, especially in entry-level positions, the most competitive job candidates will be those with the most direct experience upon graduation. The proposed capstone course will integrate well with existing coursework and internship requirements within the majors. The creative feature of this course will be the compilation of an ePortfolio, which will serve students well during their subsequent job searches.
 
DEEP: Discover, Explore, and Enjoy Physics and Engineering
This proposal aims to enhance the learning and research experiences of undergraduate and graduate students through their participation in high-profile outreach activities: principally the Physics & Engineering Festival and the Science Shows.  The program will be led by the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Department of Aerospace Engineering.  In addition, it will include participation by other departments from the Colleges of Science, Engineering, and AgriLife.  The goals are to enhance students’ knowledge of fundamental science concepts through collaborative hands-on research and educational activities, to teach them effective communication skills and responsibility, to develop their global competence, and to enhance their opportunities for interactions with their peers and professors outside the classroom.  The proposed activities include (i) students working side-by-side with their peers and professors on research, concept, design, and fabrication of science demonstration experiments, (ii) presentation of these exhibits during the Festival and Shows in teams of several students and faculty members, (iii) assessment of students teamwork and follow-up performance in core classes, and (iv) incorporation of new demonstrations in core curriculum classes.  These activities will not only directly engage more than 100 undergraduate students but willalso directly engage more than 50 graduate students per academic year.  In addition, these activities will indirectly benefit many graduate students and thousands of undergraduate students enrolled in introductory classes.  Finally, the program will be highly beneficial to the community and will greatly boost the visibility and appreciation for Texas A&M throughout Texas and beyond.
 
The Dr. David E. Schob Park and Nature Preserve
The Dr. David E. Schob Nature Preserve, a 7.4 acre site in the College Hills area of College Station, has been donated to Texas A&M University for the expressed purpose of creating, maintaining, preserving and managing the property as public parkland. The purpose of this proposal is to support full use of this donated parkland as a non-traditional classroom to provide high-impact, multidisciplinary educational practices that are aligned with Texas A&M’s land grant mission in serving the citizens of Texas through teaching, research and outreach activities. Faculty and students from the Colleges of Architecture and Agriculture will engage in evidence-based design, construction, management and research activities on this site. The Schob preserve will provide opportunities to build and relate knowledge about interactions between people and the landscapes they inhabit.
 
Ecology & Evolutionary Biology
We seek to develop and implement a novel model for interdisciplinary education at Texas A&M, via a much-needed doctoral curriculum in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology (EEB). The key innovations are:
 
1. A modular, one-year EEB core course series for first-year students. It will consist of eight 1-credit mini-courses, each taught by a different faculty member. The goals of this component will be to develop an interdisciplinary foundation for students’ subsequent graduate training and scientific endeavors.
 
2. A summer fellowship program for research and undergraduate mentoring off campus at TAMU@Galveston and at the Soltis Center in Costa Rica. The summer fellowship program will take advantage of TAMU infrastructure to create non-traditional, high-impact learning experiences based around courses that focus on interdisciplinary research driven by graduate students mentoring undergraduates. This component will provide invaluable interdisciplinary research experience for undergrads and a structured introduction to mentoring for graduate students.
 
We are requesting Reallocation funds as part of our efforts to develop a world-class PhD program in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Currently, 167 graduate students (105 PhD), mostly US citizens eligible for fellowships, affiliate with EEB. This project is being developed in concert with a proposal for a formal Ph.D. program in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, and is designed to provide seed funding for program development (year 1) and the first two entering PhD classes (years 2 and 3). Once the PhD program is in its third year, it will begin receiving state formula funds and will therefore be sustainable beyond the award period.
 
Emergency Response Activities Following a Radiological Disaster
During the Fukushima Nuclear Power plant accident thousands of farm animals were killed, not by radiation but because they were left to starve to death as the Japanese government had no plans or methods to deal with livestock following a radiological disaster.  Faculty from 3 colleges (College of Engineering, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences) propose developing a course incorporating experiential learning on animal issues surrounding a radiological disaster.  This course will evolve from current collaborative activities between Nuclear Engineering and Animal Science and incorporates current funded research from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The course will introduce students to emergency response issues surrounding radiological emergencies and will promote the need for individuals from diverse scientific specialties to work together during a response.  Students will be exposed to the National Response Framework, Incident Command and field activities as will be required during a response.  The course will culminate in a Capstone radiological emergency response exercise.  Learning outcomes will be based on realistic potential scenarios and strategies for incident management.  This will involve students working in interdisciplinary teams for: situation assessment, detection, animal handling and transport, decontamination, veterinary medical evaluation and treatment, data capture, interpretation and dissemination, and public relations. Outcome assessment will be accomplished by critical evaluation of team decisions and individual participation during exercise opportunities.  The outcome assessments will be performed by experts in radiologic emergency response.
 
The Fresh Minds Festival
Texas A&M University has a large student population that is well served by exposure to competitive venues for exhibiting accomplishments in the sciences but with few opportunities for involvement in the exhibition of accomplishments in the visual and performing arts.  To meet this need, we propose a unique  ultidisciplinary approach centered around a public event: The Fresh Minds Festival.  Professional artists from around the world will be invited to submit audiovisual compositions (sometimes called visual music) to the festival in an open call for works. The submissions will be student-curated under the direction of a multi-disciplinary team of faculty.  Through this process students will study and apply the intrinsic (line, texture, form, rhythm) and extrinsic (context, larger meaning, theory) components used for evaluation in expressive fields such as art, design, music, and theatre arts.  A public performance of audiovisual artworks by selected professional artists will culminate the experience, with up to three selected artists in residence at the festival to interact with students.
 
Genomics and Society Course
A modular Genomics & Society Course is proposed that creates an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to consider societal implications, benefits, and consequences of genomics technology, learn about the scientific approaches and advancements underlying such technology, and provide a forum where science- and technology-focused students engage in discussion with students from liberal arts and social science programs. The objectives of this course are (1) to introduce students to connected disciplines outside their area of expertise; (2) to engage students in conversations about societal implications of scientific advancements; (3) facilitate student research opportunities in multiple disciplines, and (4) enable student interaction with leading research scholars.  These objectives will achieve the goal of developing ingenuity in students and producing graduates who can excel in interdisciplinary work environments.  Thus the overall long-range impact of this type of educational experience will be to produce graduates who can be leaders in a global, multidisciplinary environment.
 
Humanities Visualization Space
We will be working with graduate and undergraduate students in Art History, Communications, English Literature, and Visualization in a co-taught course made up of Interdisciplinary Teams in order to create a 3D environment.  This Humanities Visualization Space, as we are calling it, which will live in the new Liberal Arts and Arts Building, will be used to perform research on our cultural heritage.
 
IMRCALE: Integration of Research Class Instrumentation into Materials Science and Engineering Education
An open, variable credit laboratory for interdisciplinary MSEN students is proposed. MSEN, more than most degree programs, is very broad. Employment opportunities require students versed in a wider range of sophisticated experimental techniques than normally encountered in thesis work. Our goal is to provide a mechanism for more diverse training with research grade instrumentation similar to that encountered in industry and research labs. This instrumentation is generally unavailable in teaching laboratories due to high acquisition, maintenance and operations costs. Thus, we must leverage the wealth of state-of-the-art research instrumentation at TAMU to make it available for teaching. Initial efforts will focus on thermal characterization instrumentation, but, as experience is gained to incorporate the educational aspects (experiment design, instrument scheduling, training, maintenance) in fee-based and designated individual laboratories, integration with other research facilities (CNST, MIC, MCF, MDC2) with different tools will be pursued. Though thermal characterization is a fundamental tool, there is no modern instrumentation outside of a few individual research labs at TAMU. We will focus on integrating this research experience, required for the workforce trained at A&M, into the existing and new, variable credit course. By registering for 1-3 hours variable credits, students gain experiences as needed whenever their schedules permit. Benefits include: 1) students initiating serious research earlier; 2) faster graduation rates, particularly for graduate degrees; 3) much broader laboratory training for students. This program benefits MSEN 601/602, MEMA 626, ECEN 640, MEEN 658/404, and PHYS 425. As new facilities are included, other courses will also benefit.
 
Interactive Arts and Technology Initiative
A multidisciplinary team from Visualization, Computer Science and Engineering, and Health and Kinesiology proposes a new initiative of interdisciplinary research and creative activities in Interactive Arts and Technology, focusing on Interactive Performance.This initiative is designed around active engagement from three colleges through a new course, existing undergraduate/graduate courses, graduate research, faculty research, and external events.
 
We will develop a new interdisciplinary course as the core course of this collaboration. This course will be cross-listed among the three departments and will meet as one section, team-taught by PIs.This course will explore interactive art and technology practice that integrates the creative and imaginative possibilities of interactive art with its application to new technology research. Furthermore we will integrate our learning activities with professional events, and local/national/international festivals and conferences. This initiative will also directly benefit our research in terms of performance capture, interaction, visualization and sound effects.
 
We expect active participation by 100 undergraduate students every year: about 25 students in the interdisciplinary course and also about 75 students in other undergraduate courses that have been taught by participants in the three departments. More than 20 graduate students will directly benefit from this initiative on their research annually through taking courses or being advised by PIs.
 
This three year initiative program will allow us to create a new structure of multidisciplinary research and learning activity in interactive arts and technology. Our collaborative efforts, however, will go beyond this three-year program, catalyzing the development of new degree programs and external funding.
 
Interdisciplinary Experience in Electricity: A Grass Roots Approach
The objective of this project is to develop, over a three-year period, a student-oriented, experiential-based inter-disciplinary approach to educating future leaders in the energy sector and empowering smart consumers in the smart electricity grid. The approach is to (1) offer newly-developed courses that incorporate cross-disciplinary insights to students; (2) enhance interaction between student organizations (in particular, the TAMU Energy Club and the Economics Society) and energy industry leaders in order to improve the professional development of our students; and (3) lead acapstone project that synthesizes engineering and social science-based models to develop new energy technology platforms and empower energy consumers via the “smart grid”. Each year we will enhance the learning experience for approximately 120 students from Engineering, 65 students from Liberal Arts, and 30 students from other Colleges. In addition, the capstone project will impact students as energy consumers.  The campus-wide smart phone-based energy management project will target a participation of about 250 students from across different colleges. Through these tightly coupled classroom learning and experiential activities, the goal is to develop high impact but low cost activities that will promote the professional and leadership interests of students focusing on the energy sector, as well as to raise the overall energy-awareness of the diverse Texas A&M student body.
 
Laboratory in Air: Experiential Learning
Faculty members from Colleges of Engineering, Geosciences and Sciences propose a `Project: Laboratory in Air’ involving Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) vehicles offering multi-disciplinary active- learning experience for over 1,000 undergraduate students in the Colleges of Engineering, Science, and Geosciences.  This project is timely based on the modern-day relevance of LTA vehicles and recent successes the Aggie Balloon Club has achieved with flight testing an LTA with undergraduate students. Multi-disciplinary teams from different departments and colleges will be formed to design, build and fly LTA vehicles and scientific missions.
 
This project would lead to educational and research activities at the individual discipline as well as system integration levels. The LTA activity would be driven by three main goals: (i) Annual high-altitude (120,000 feet) balloon launch from locations in the Americas in partnership with Project Aether (projectaether.org), a Houston-based organization founded with the goal of training next generation Texas engineers and scientists;  (ii) Year-round projects aimed toward studying the environmental effects of local coal-fired power plants; and (iii) `Laboratory in Air’ platform for use in various courses in Colleges of Engineering, Science and Geoscience.
 
Leadership in the Public Sector Using a Multidisciplinary Team
The Public Leadership Development Program is a one-semester program for juniors and seniors in the colleges of Architecture, Agriculture, Engineering, and the School of Military Sciences.  It is organized to give participants both academic grounding and practical experience in issues that leaders face.  Participants will use the information and skills acquired during the semester in several research projects and group activities that will address problems faced by a non-profit or governmental organization. They are placed into a team and work with a client in the community to develop a solution to a predetermined, usually ill-defined, problem. Examples of potential clients include the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, Texas Agrilife Extension Service, Boys & Girls Clubs of Brazos County, and Health For All.  Students use critical thinking and decision-making skills to identify and create solutions to real-life problems for non-profit or governmental organizations.  Students also learn how to work effectively in a group/team setting, how to research a problem, manage group and individual conflict, and develop effective written and oral communication skills. The final product consists of a professionally bound report and a multi-media presentation to the client. Extensive outside work is required of students in meeting/corresponding with clients and meeting with their team to conduct original research and design/develop a solution to the client’s problem.  This course would be taught and cross-listed as ALED 400, CARC 400, SOMS 489, and ENGR 400 and satisfy a Social and Behavioral Science in the core curriculum of a student’s degree plan.
 
Learning Community for Computer Science & Visualization
This project seeks to develop an active learning community of scholars engaged in the multidisciplinary areas of Computational Science and Visualization. These two areas provide key computational technologies that are used to advance research in science, engineering, and medicine. This community of scholars consisting of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduate students from several departments will be engaged in interdisciplinary research activities, curricular enhancements, and outreach. The project will leverage an existing organic research environment to enhance graduate and undergraduate learning experience.
 
Mastery Learning of Physics and Mathematics for Engineers using Web-Based tools and Mastery Scholars
We describe a joint proposal between the College of Science and the College of Engineering designed to promote excellence and retention among students in the Department of Chemical Engineering by fostering experiences that integrate research and education. The methodology of our program is based on education research literature, and includes the following two components:
 
1)      Mastery Learning Pedagogy: We will identify and remediate the most common math and science deficiencies of hundreds of Chemical Engineering students early in their second-year classes using web-based quiz systems as well as experiential and personalized interactions with a Mastery Scholar (peer-mentor).
 
2)      Mastery Scholars Program: We will identify and foster the development of the next generation of STEM educators by developing a service-based learning experience for a set of students to be dubbed Mastery Scholars. Their experiences will include a summer research program with a faculty mentor, as well with a teaching component as they provide mentoring to students using the online Mastery Learning quiz system.
 
Multidisciplinary Experiential Learning with Green Roof and Living Wall Technologies
Green roof technology was evolved in Europe to mitigate for ecological stresses from urban development such as flooding, urban heat islands, air pollution, and prevention of drought. In North America, green roof research is beginning to demonstrate similar benefits, however, research in southern U.S. climates is lacking behind the northern U.S. A living wall is a vegetated wall designed to achieve similar benefits of green roofs, however, much less is known about their performance. Green roofs have been proposed for several buildings at Texas A&M but have not yet been realized. Our proposal affords faculty, students and administration the opportunity to better understand the performance expectations of green roofs in a safe and controlled setting. We propose a green roof and living wall research facility on campus to engage over 1000 students from three colleges. Students would help assemble and install the green roofs and living walls, visit the facility, collect data, and observe real-time data in the classroom. Instructors would evaluate student comprehension of green technology concepts and research findings. As green technologies are becoming encouraged and mandated in North American cities, future leaders will need hands-on experiences to understand the expectations and limitations of green technologies. With this proposal funded, students at Texas A&M will be better prepared to become environmental leaders and compete with students from the many colleges and universities across North America are already engaged in green roof research. Faculty will be able to become green technology leaders in Texas and the southern U.S.
 
New Organic Chemistry Course for Life Sciences Students
We will develop a second semester of organic chemistry for life science students that will focus on the organic chemistry of reactions found in living systems. We will initially not change the first semester course, which focuses on the fundamental principles of the subject. We anticipate a class size of 200-300 students.
 
Preparing the Agricultural Emergency Responder
Veterinary Medical, Animal Science and Biomedical Science graduates must be prepared to protect animal industries and populations in the State of Texas and the United Sates from the unprecedented potential for introduction of trans-border, foreign animal and emerging diseases.  The era of modern transportation, lax border security and potential for malicious introduction of infectious agents all threaten animal agriculture industries and populations which represent a significant portion of our country’s economic output and the basis for our food supply.  This necessitates that agricultural and veterinary medical graduates have the knowledge base and skill set to protect the industries they serve.  In addition, the resultant emergency response will require veterinarians and animal industry professionals who are educated and possess expertise in emergency response, disease containment, and index case recognition.  The proposed Preparing the Agricultural Emergency Responder course will prepare students to protect our nation’s agricultural industries and food supply and to participate in infectious disease emergency response efforts.  This will be accomplished through a combination of didactic instruction and experiential tabletop exercises.  The capstone event of this course will be a full-scale infectious disease emergency response exercise.  Students will be placed in a field situation and will be expected to develop multi-disciplinary teams capable of solving problems as they arise while also performing the actual activities associated with infectious disease emergency response.
 
Project Potato
The Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA has issued a proposal to limit the serving of starchy vegetables in school meal programs. This policy decision will affect millions of children and their families. Although the changes presumably are designed to improve the dietary quality of school meals, there may be unintended consequences of removing food items that children enjoy eating. Therefore, it is important to pose and to address the question: what are the nutritional and financial costs of limiting potatoes in school feeding programs compared with substituting other vegetables? We hypothesize that the recommended changes may have negative economic and dietary consequences. Proposed project sets out a mechanism to involve Texas A&M undergraduate students in a hands-on research experience to address this issue. This investigation presents a real time, real world, dynamic opportunity where a multi-disciplinary team of investigators and educators will collaborate in engaging undergraduate students in a stimulating “natural experiment” that translates academic theory and knowledge into practice. Objectives of this project are to develop a multidisciplinary research training exercise combining experts from nutrition education, economics, public policy, food science, and health education and kinesiology; to train undergraduate students on steps in scientific research methodology promoting efforts for undergraduate research and to engage undergraduate students in different multidisciplinary research efforts providing appropriate training to apply the methods learned from Project Potato into future research. Ultimately, this investigation offers the opportunity for TAMU faculty and students to have a real impact on the national policy development process.
 
Sustainable Expansion and Retention of Talented Forensics and Investigative Scientists
The Forensic and Investigative Sciences (FIVS) Undergraduate Degree Program will soon be the only undergraduate degree-conferring, nationally accredited program of its kind in Texas.  Program enrollment has increased 29.5% per year, with no indication of it approaching a plateau soon.  A significant proportion of this growth is comprised of first generation college-level students (48.1%) or ethnic minorities (51.4%); but student attrition rates within these categories have been equally high (56.0% and 60.8%, respectively).   The attrition results from the program requirement of a cumulative 3.0 GPR to gain entry to the upper division courses.  No student has left or been dismissed from the upper level FIVS program.  Placement of program graduates into high paying career positions or premier graduate and or professional schools is superb.  Operationally, the dismissed students struggle with their adaptation to college life and their handling of a STEM-based curriculum.  The goal of this proposal is to implement student preparation, academic achievement, community integration and career advancement tactics that will significant increase student retention, particularly those from underrepresented groups.  Consequently, graduation rates and career placement in a rapidly expanding, STEM-based field will increase significantly.  The success of the activities will result from partnerships among 3 colleges, 7 academic departments, at least 10 tenured/tenure-track faculty, a minimum of 4 forensic professions, and several TAMU student support offices.  Sustainability plans are in place to maintain the talent expansion and retention program once established.
 
Texas A&M University Bioscience Bonn
I propose to build on my prior experience in creating and leading study abroad programs for students in the life sciences to develop the “TAMU Bioscience Bonn Program”.  TAMU Bioscience Bonn would be a permanent faculty and student presence in Bonn, Germany, based at the Academy for International Education (AIB), a German educational non-profit company that I (and many other TAMU faculty) have used as our study abroad provider since the 1990s.  Each semester, TAMU faculty from multiple colleges along with appropriately vetted German academics would offer a range of courses designed to appeal to a diverse group of TAMU undergraduates majoring in the life sciences.  The colleges I would initially involve in this project are: Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (CVMBS); Agriculture and Life Sciences (COALS); and Engineering (COE).  Collectively, these three colleges have an undergraduate enrollment of about 15,090 students (2010 data).  Coursework can also be planned and provided for professional (veterinary) and graduate students further increasing the potential number of students who could take advantage of the program.  Future plans could also include students from the College of Science.
 
Training and Education Experience for Graduate and Undergraduate in Advanced Imaging of Nanomaterials for Emerging Technologies
Undergraduates are generally lack of hands-on research experiences and unaware of the exciting research activities on campus. To facilitate undergraduates’ research and educational experiences and attract them to our graduate program, an unconventional educational approach is proposed to provide undergraduates with great hands-on research experiences on advanced imaging tools for various emerging technology needs including energy harvesting and storage materials, biomaterials, multifunctional nanocomposites. Using the Microscopy and Imaging Center (MIC) as a hub for this two-year project, undergraduates will be teamed with graduates to select an interest topic and conduct the imaging study under a staff’s guidance. At the beginning of the semester, a user workshop will be hosted to disseminate the nanomaterials research on campus by the active users of the MIC. At the end of the semester the second workshop will be hosted to present the findings by the graduates and undergraduates. The workshop events will be open to 50+ graduates and 150+ undergraduates who are interested in imaging techniques but may not have the opportunity to participate in research activities.
 
The proposed activities will (1) provide excellent research training experiences to as many as 200 undergraduates and 100 graduates/year,  (2) allow all students involved learn the research tools and materials and be better prepared for the future research challenges along their career paths, and (3) facilitate the research discussion and collaborations across disciplines and across the whole campus. We hope this new educational initiative becomes a tradition on campus and continues in the years to come.
 
Youth Development After School Program
Students interested in pursuing careers in youth development need practical field experiences to develop skills necessary to positively engage with youth. The Youth Development After-School Program Lab (YDPL) will meet important educational and professional development needs for at least 300 undergraduate and 20 graduate students annually. The YDPL will provide undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to develop and implement programming, interact with youth, and conduct research. This lab will help prepare our undergraduate and graduate students with the knowledge, skills, and experience to become leaders in the field of youth development program design, implementation, and evaluation. The YDPL will include an afterschool program for 6th-8thgraders using existing infrastructure and resources through a partnership with the City of Bryan and Bryan ISD. The program will operate during after-school times two days a week for 10 weeks during each semester beginning in AY2013. The YDPL will facilitate experiential learning for students 1) related to the implementation of youth programs, 2) related to the administration and funding of youth organizations, 3) related to direct instructional contexts of individual students and small groups, and 4) related to the evaluation of and research involving youth programs. This proposal requests $207,390 over two academic years to support the initial development and implementation of the YDPL. This project will engage faculty from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the College of Agriculture.

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