collaboration

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $2.3 million dollars to a project team led by ISER researcher Dr. Jennifer Schmidt to assess fuel treatments as a strategy to reduce wildfire risk in the boreal forest of Alaska and western Canada. Of the total amount, $856,000 will go to the University of Alaska. Eleven researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage, Northern Arizona University (NAU), the University of Colorado (UC), Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC), and the Wildfire Research Center (WiRē) will work on the four-year project, “Socio-ecological considerations for sustainAble Fuel treatments to Reduce wildfire Risk (SAFRR).”

A team of researchers at UAA and UAF led by Dr. Dayna DeFeo will collaborate on a four-year project funded by the National Science Foundation to learn more about factors that contribute to retention of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teachers in high-need schools. The project, “Sufficient COmpensation for Retention and Equity” (SCORE), will examine how compensation, working conditions and other factors encourage teachers to stay.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Dr. Sarah Gerken and Dr. Dayna DeFeo a three-year grant to research the role of the introductory biology lab in the general education curriculum. The new project, Identifying the Learning Objectives of Biology Laboratories in the General Education Curriculum and Exploring Gaps Between Objectives and Practice (NSF # 2044101) was awarded through the Division of Undergraduate Education’s Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program.

Dayna DeFeo will serve as the evaluator on a project to support college and career readiness activities for rural high school students.