Summary
Non Technical Summary
The goal of this Joint Education Project is to increase the number of students from traditionally underserved communities transferring from regional community colleges to NMHU and graduating with leadership and research experience in natural resources management through engagement in the Rio Mora Natural Resources Field Skills & Leadership Development Program. The project will build lasting relationships with three regional Hispanic-serving community colleges, Luna Community College (LCC), Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) and the Community College of Denver (CCD) that support the transfer of natural resource students by incorporating cross-institutional professional development for all participating faculty with a team-teaching model throughout the project.
Objectives & Deliverables
Goals / Objectives
The goal of this Joint Education Project is to increase the number of students from traditionally underserved populations transferring from regional community colleges to New Mexico Highlands University (NMHU) and graduating with leadership and research experience in natural resources management through engagement in the Rio Mora Natural Resources Field Skills & Leadership Development Program. Objectives include:1. Develop formal relationships between NMHU and Luna Community College, Santa Fe Community College and Community College of Denver for transfer pathways in natural resources at NMHU.2. 72 community college students participate in a two-week, residential field skills and leadership development program at the Conservation Science Center @ NMHU that provides tranferable credit towards their program of study.3. Each project year, three Community College and three NMHU faculty participate in professional development on the incorporation of leadership skills into the science curriculum and receive follow up mentoring to assess progress.NMHU and community college faculty team teach the collaboratively developed curriculum based on experiential learning, engaging students in conservation research methodologies: (1) restoring wetland habitat and quantifying water quality, (2) using geospatial tools to understand the impact of human land use on the watershed, (3) understanding how fire and grazing by large herbivores impact grassland ecosystems, and (4) community ecology and population dynamics among native and invasive species. These focus areas contain leadership components integrated into the curriculum. This project is designed to enhance capacity of participating institutions to prepare students to obtain a baccalaurate and a subsequent natural resource management career.
Challenges
Project Methods
1. Annual recruitment of CC students to the program.2. CC and NMHU professional development in the STAR Leadership Program. The program is designed to "increase student awareness and understanding of expectations and behaviors necessary to become successful STEM professionals" (Reed, 2016).3. Refinement of the two-week, intersession field course curriculum with participating faculty input. The course will utilize experiential learning pedagogies that focus on ecological processes and in-depth field study and practice with a variety of field data collection techniques of natural environments lasting approximately fourteen days with hands-on laboratory and field experiences.4. Deliver the two-week field course to community college students utilizing the collaboratively-developed curriculum. The integrated research component will be supported with assistance from four NMHU natural resources management graduate students. The community college students will conduct and implement collaborative student research based on their immersion into the northern New Mexico landscape and wildlife that address current natural resource challenges.5. Leadership skills development will be included throughout activities and workshops during the camp. Having completed the camp, the students will participate as leaders in environmental clubs on their own campuses and will organize recruitment of new students for the following year.6. Integration of leadership skills development into course curricula by NMHU and CC participating faculty. Dr. Karla McCain, the consultant who will be leading the professional development, will provide a mentoring session to each faculty participant at the end of the fall and spring semesters to discuss challenges and opportunities for improvement.
Principle Investigator(s)
Planned Completion date: 31/08/2025
Effort: $299,868.00
Project Status
COMPLETE
Principal Investigator(s)
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Researcher Organisations
Recipient Organization NEW MEXICO HIGHLANDS UNIVERSITY BOX 9000 LAS VEGAS,NM 87701
United Kingdom