The three summer-long camps, funded by a $537,400 grant from the National Science Foundation’s Research Experience for Undergraduates, are expected to attract 8-10 students from across the U.S. and two to four teachers each year. The participants’ time will include classroom time at EKU, laboratory time at UK and two weeks of field camp in and around Perry and Letcher counties in eastern Kentucky.

“We want to encourage promising young people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by giving them an intensive, real research experience,” said Dr. Alice Jones, associate professor of geography and director of EKU’s Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute, who is co-directing the camps along with Dr. James Fox, assistant professor of civil engineering at UK.

While there are several hundred NSF-REU sites nationwide, only four are located in Kentucky. Each REU site consists of a group of approximately 10 undergraduates who work in the research program of the host institution to develop a specific research project in close collaboration with faculty mentors. Participants in the EKU/UK program will use the emerging technique of carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis to study biogeochemical cycles and their influence on ecosystem dynamics, carbon cycling and storage in soils and sediments in headwater streams, and the impacts of different surface coal mining methods on carbon budgets and erosion in forested and mined watersheds.

“We want to give each participant a real sense of what it’s like to be a working scientist,” Jones said. “But it won’t be all work and no play.

“One exciting thing about this is we’ve designed in two additional trips (a rock-climbing expedition at Red River Gorge and a visit to either Lake Cumberland or Laurel Lake) that are entirely recreational,” Jones said. “That will enable the participants to bond and enjoy what eastern Kentucky has to offer.”

Each participating student will receive a $450-per-week stipend and an additional $500 at the conclusion of the camp toward travel to and attendance at a regional or national conference in their chosen discipline.

Selection of the undergraduate participants will be “nationally competitive,” Jones said, noting that applicants will be judged on academic record, demonstrated interest in one or more of the STEM disciplines, and faculty recommendations. She expects that first-year camp participants will be selected by March 2009. Students can apply for this and other REU programs nationwide by visiting the National Science Foundation’s REU Web site.

Participating teachers, who will be recruited from economically distressed communities in Appalachian Kentucky, where secondary math and science scores are persistently below state and national averages, will be encouraged to develop research projects related to issues in the communities where they teach and live and will be required to develop a comprehensive standards-based unit of study curriculum tied to state-mandated science curriculum standards.

Jones said the Research Experience for Undergraduates program is a perfect fit for EKU’s Eastern Kentucky Environmental Research Institute.

“One of the reasons I’m so passionate about this project is that this is the mission of the Institute: to link what we do as researchers to communities in our service region. It’s a combination of teaching, research and outreach, all happening at the same time.”

The partnership with UK only adds to the excitement.

“This is a true collaboration between Dr. Fox and me at a very fundamental level (and) we hope it will lead to an ongoing research partnership focused on the region,” she said.