HR: 1340h
AN: ED33B-1221    [Abstracts]
TI: Minority Institutions Collaboration in Geoscience Education and Research
AU: * Morris, P A
EM: penny.morris-smith-1@nasa.gov
AF: University of Houston-Downtown, One Main Street, Houston, TX 77002,
AU: Austin, S A
EM: saustin@mec.cuny.edu
AF: Medgar Evers College, CUNY, 1150 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 11225,
AU: Johnson, L P
EM: leon.johnson@verizon.net
AF: Medgar Evers College, CUNY, 1150 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY 11225,
AU: Salgado, C
EM: salgado@jlab.org
AF: Norfolk State University, 700 Park Avenue, Norfolk, VA 23504,
AU: Walter, D K
EM: dkw@physics.scsu.edu
AF: South Carolina State University, 300 College Street, NE, Orangeburg, SC 29117,
AB: The Minority University Consortium for Earth and Space Sciences (MUCESS) is a collaboration among four diverse minority institutions to increase the number of underrepresented students pursuing professional and research careers in Earth and Atmospheric Science and Space Science. The institutions that comprise MUCESS include the University of Houston-Downtown (Hispanic Serving Institution), Medgar Evers College (Other Minority University), Norfolk State University (Historically Black College/University) and South Carolina State University (Historically Black College/University). MUCESS collaborations span a range of projects in research, education and outreach in Earth and Space Science. This includes faculty research, undergraduate internships and student exchanges among our institutions as well as outreach to K-12 schools and the general public. MUCESS has recently received an award from the National Science Foundation under Solicitation NSF 04-590 "Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG)". Under this award faculty and students will be engaged in research (both undergraduate and graduate) in atmospheric science through ozonesonde launches to better understand the distribution and transport of ozone in the lower troposphere. Faculty and students will also participate in ozone observations for validation of instruments onboard the NASA Aura satellite. Additional balloon payloads will include instruments such as temperature and data logger sensors, carbon dioxide detectors, Geiger counters and digital and analog cameras. Launches will originate from Texas, New York, Vermont, South Carolina and elsewhere. This presentation describes the formation of MUCESS and the collaborative undergraduate research and outreach projects spanning six or more years. It also describes the evolution of the joint ozone investigation as well as planned activities supported by the NSF Geoscience Diversity award. Funding for the work described has been provided by NASA under a variety of programs and awards to all four institutions individually (MUCERPI, MUSPIN, Aura/EPO, Space Grant Consortia, PAIR, etc.) as well as the recent NSF OEDG award to MUCESS.
UR: http://nrts.mec.cuny.edu/mucess
DE: 0345 Pollution: urban and regional (0305, 0478, 4251)
DE: 0468 Natural hazards
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting