Research Partnerships: UC Davis Biological Invasions IGERT

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Research Partnerships UC Davis Biological
Invasions IGERT

• Strategies to Promote Diversity
• Nobleboro, Maine
• 12 March 2007

Carole L. Hom Academic Coordinator, UC Davis
Biological Invasions IGERT Western Regional
Representative, Institute for Broadening
Participation clhom_at_ucdavis.edu
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UC Davis

• Northernmost campus in the UC system
• Land grant research, teaching, public service
• Fall 2006 enrollment of 30,500 students total
• 23,500 undergraduates
• 65 science majors
• over 60 of undergraduates are non-white

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UC Davis

• Interdisciplinary graduate study predominates (86
  programs)
• e.g., Ecology Graduate Group over 100 faculty
  from over a dozen academic departments
• Collegial student-faculty relationships

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UC Davis outreach and professional development
graduate

• AGEP (University of California Alliance)
• Incoming students summer transitional program
• Continuing students academic year enrichment and
  mentoring
• Professors for the Future
• Fellowship program designed to develop the
  leadership skills of graduate students and
  postdoctoral scholars who have demonstrated their
  commitment to professionalism, integrity, and
  academic service
• Professional Development series open to all
  students
• Teaching Resources Center teaching methods for
  faculty, grad students, and postdocs

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UC Davis outreach and professional development
undergraduate

• McNair Scholars
• Biology Undergraduate Scholars Program
• Academic development, research, mentoring
• Research programs for minority students in
  physical and agricultural sciences
• Annual campus-wide undergraduate research
  conference
• Annual, since 1989
• Hundreds of participants in concurrent oral and
  poster sessions

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Outreach and professional development
undergraduate

• Summer Undergraduate Research Program
  (http//www.gradstudies.ucdavis.edu/surp/index.htm
  l)
• UC Davis Graduate Studies initiative
• research and academic development
• housing and stipend provided
• for students in any field, from any institution
• REU at Bodega Marine Laboratory
• "...the REU program is your opportunity to
  explore
• and have fun during the summer. A todas las
• mujeres Latinas echenle ganas y puro pa'
  adelante."
• -Angelica Zavala, UC Davis
• 2005 REU participant

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What are Biological Invasions?

• organisms that have evolved somewhere, been
  transported to someplace else, spread rapidly,
  and become problems in their new environment
• exemplars of environmental problems
• require interdisciplinary approaches to solve

Yellow starthistle has infested 32 of California
rangelands and created environmental and
economic problems
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IGERT research partnerships

• Between different academic units
• Ecology
• Molecular biology and genetics
• Resource economics
• Environmental history and cultural studies
• Policy and law
• and others

Ecology, economics, and history students in the
2004 cohort found discrepancies between
strategies advocated by scientists to control
yellow starthistle and what cattle ranchers
actually use under constraints of available
information, time, and money
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Research partnerships

• Between academics, agencies, and non-governmental
  organizations (NGOs)
• The Nature Conservancy
• California Department of Food and Agriculture
• California Invasive Plant Council
• and others
• Internships
• Agencies and NGOs listed above
• Gulf of Farallones National Marine Reserve
• Ecological Society of America policy office
  (Washington DC)
• The Davis Enterprise (daily newspaper)
• Agency staff advise students on year-long student
  projects

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Products

• Publications
• voluntary control initiatives in the
  horticultural industry (Burt et al. 2007,
  Biological Invasions)
• Invasive plants impact on California Indian
  basketweavers (Pfeiffer and Huerta Ortiz, 2007,
  Fremontia)

Ely Huerta Ortiz (at left) participated in the
basketweaver project as an undergraduate and now
is working as an environmental educator before
starting graduate study in ethnobotany
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Products

• Environmental documentary film
• Envisioned, written, and filmed by trainees
  (http//cpb.ucdavis.edu/bioinv/projects/pike/)

Fear and Fishing in Lake Davis vividly portrays
the clash between a local community and state
government over controlling the invasive northern
pike. "Fear and Fishing... superbly captures
the complexity of issues surrounding biological
invasions, and it clearly demonstrates that
science alone will not lead to effective resource
management if local stakeholders are not
engaged." (Simberloff, review in the journal
Biological Invasions)
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Products

• High school curriculum for environmental
  education
• Intended for use by the Center for Land-based
  Learning (http//www.landbasedlearning.org/about.p
  hp)
• Targets students in the greater Sacramento
  region many English-language learners with over
  30 languages spoken at home

The Center for Land Based Learning brings
together students and adults from diverse ethnic
and cultural communities to work as a team in
learning about the environment and
agriculture. It makes a difference to the
community and it changes your attitude toward
biology and science. It makes you want to go to
class and learn.
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Outreach and recruitment

• Augmenting the pipeline
• Undergraduate researchers research, mentoring,
  professional development
• Cooperation with McNair Scholars program and
  other UC Davis outreach programs to target
  undergraduates from underrepresented groups

2005-2006 undergraduates now working in science
or science education, or starting grad school at
U Wisconsin or Harvard Two Latina, one Native
American/ disabled, one hearing impaired
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Outreach and recruitment

• BioInvasions faculty and grad students recruit at
  minority student events at professional society
  meetings
• Faculty recruit at SACNAS, HBCU-UP, ABRCMS
• Campus participation in California Diversity
  Forum (http//www.ucop.edu/acadadv/forum-for-diver
  sity/recruiters/index.html)
• Graduate recruitment fair that targets minority
  students
• Fall northern California, spring southern
  California
• 3 November 2007 at UC Davis
• Strategies for Ecology Education, Development and
  Sustainability (SEEDS) chapter
• program of the Ecological Society of America
• Organized by UC Davis students and faculty, goal
  is to broaden participation in ecology

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Outreach and recruitment

• Partnership with Howard University (HBCU) and
  California State University, Fullerton (Hispanic
  serving institution)
• sites of Undergrad Mentoring in Environmental
  Biology programs
• UC Davis faculty visit for seminar, info sessions
  on graduate school
• Howard and CSUF faculty and students do summer
  research at UC Davis
• Howard and CSUF faculty and students attend UC
  Davis IGERT fall conference

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Retention

• Web of mentoring faculty, staff, peers
• Close-knit student community formed through
  coursework and challenges of year-long project
• 100 retention in
• Biological Invasions
• IGERT

IGERT students from three cohorts at 2005 fall
conference