Success Stories

Framing the Chemistry Curriculum, a “Track-3” award from National Science Foundation (NSF) EPSCoR, funded a collaboration with Nebraska’s tribal colleges to re-establish STEM courses with a Native American community focus.

Mark Griep, professor with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Chemistry and the “Framing” project’s principal investigator, formed a team of Nebraska’s tribal college science educators to develop chemistry curriculum relevant to tribal community topics. The labs—which include background information, community connections, a prayer, lab protocols and procedures, and suggestions for the lab report--can be performed by students alone or in pairs, and require about 2.5 hours to complete if the reagents and materials are ready.

Because of the Framing project, more than 20 students have taken a chemistry course in the past five years at Nebraska Indian Community College--with locations in Macy, Santee and South Sioux City. Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago had offered a low-enrollment chemistry sequence; now it is attracting over six students a semester. The full-time enrollment at each college is between 150 and 180 students.

In 2012, a Girl Scouts study found that women account for only 20% of bachelor’s degrees conferred in computer science, physics, and engineering. In addition, only 25% of STEM positions are occupied by women. The Girl Scouts of Maine in partnership with Maine EPSCoR are working with girls to address this gender gap.

Maine Program Director and Regional Office Supervisor Samantha Lott Hale articulates that the Girl Scouts’ girl-initiated programming provides Maine youth with the opportunity to change the narrative about young girls’ futures in STEM fields. The National Girl Scouts organization has pledged to add 2.5 million girls to the STEM pipeline by 2025. The organization’s pledge promises to address the concern that girls as early as third grade are dismissing future STEM endeavors.

Rising levels of carbon dioxide in the world’s oceans is increasing water pH, leading to ocean acidification (OA). Maine researchers as well as researchers nationwide are questioning the impact of OA on ocean waters, marine resources, and commercial industries. Maine is especially interested in these effects because the state is experiencing extreme environmental changes that may threaten its coastal economy.

Supported researchers and technicians from the Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture Network (SEANET) and University of Maine’s Aquaculture Research Institute’s (ARI) Orono facility designed and built the first state of the art Ocean Acidification Lab in Maine. The project was funded by Maine’s NSF EPSCoR SEANET Award.

Faculty members from institutions across the United States are collaborating to expand the EPSCoR-funded pilot program “Arkansas Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience” (AR-CURE), through the NSF Research Coordination Networks in Undergraduate Biology Education (RCN-UBE) program. The team was awarded a 5-year grant to establish the Cell Biology Consortium (CBEC) which will provide startup funding for colleges to implement CUREs in a variety of topics.