Gary Allen - US grants

This project consists of two activities: 1)An award program for teachers in Native American school in two parts: a)Exemplary Science Teaching Awards in a program called Research for Renewal. An award of $2,500 will be given to a teacher recommended by the NASEA Awards Committee in each of five geographical regions each year. NSF will support eight such awards over a period of two years. b)Outstanding Awards are made to successful nominees for a Field Research Expedition. Six awards of $2,000 each are to be made to teachers in the Northwest region. 2)Production of a Promising Practices and Practitioners Publication. This will be a compilation of successful science lessons that teachers in Native American schools have developed. The grant will cover the cost of assembling the material, preparing a 174-page booklet, and distributing 1000 copies to teachers in Native American schools.

This award to the University of New Orleans is made in response to a proposal submitted to the National Science Foundation's Research in Undergraduate Institutions (RUI) Program. The award will provide one-half of the funds needed to acquire an X-ray diffractometer system that will be installed and operated in the University's Department of Geology & Geophysics. The University is committed to providing the other half required to purchase the equipment. The equipment will significantly enhance the research and student training capabilities of the department and will be used in a series of ongoing projects involving faculty and student research. These projects include diagenetic studies of clastic and carbonate rocks, laboratory simulations of diagenetic chemical reactions, characterizations of fine-grained, deep-sea sediments and factors affecting their behavior, provenance studies of Mississippi River sediment, characterization of minerals in pegmatites, and structural geology studies in Alaska.

This award provides funds to the Department of Psychology at The University of South Carolina to support ten undergraduate students in a program called Summer Research Institute in Experimental Psychology. The program provides a forum for educating undergraduate students about he field of experimental psychology. The current appeal of applied psychology is drawing far more applicants to those programs, particularly among minority students. The Institute focuses student interest and enthusiasm on the basic science areas of psychology. The eight week USC Summer Research Institute will permit well qualified minority and non-minority undergraduate students majoring in behavioral science, an experience in graduate level research including an opportunity to formulate and conduct an experiment with individual guidance from energetic and supportive research faculty. The student will experience major phases of experimental research including literature review, hypothesis generation, data collection, data organization, statistical analysis, and writing a report in the style of the American Psychological Association. Student experience will be enriched by weekly research seminars where assigned readings are discussed, and by-weekly sessions on problems of research design and statistics in experimental psychology. Students receive gratis course credit for their work. This program emphasis is much needed, as the U.S. is perceived as the leader in the field of experimental psychology, but our universities must be able to motivate and train the best students for future careers in the vital areas of behavioral science. This Summer Institute provides one vehicle to enhance these goals.