Faculty Programs and Resources
A Guide to Undergraduate Research for Community College Faculty
What is undergraduate research?
What are the benefits of undergraduate research to students?
What are the challenges of undergraduate research?
How to prepare students for undergraduate research
What faculty can do to stimulate undergraduate research?
Council on Undergraduate Research
The Council on Undergraduate Research promotes research by faculty and undergraduate students in the sciences, mathematics, and engineering. The colleges, universities, and individuals affiliated with CUR share a focus on undergraduate education, and a belief that education is best served by faculty-student collaborative research combined with investigative teaching strategies. We also believe that faculty improve their teaching and contribute to society by remaining active in research. Therefore CUR provides avenues for faculty development and helps administrators to improve and assess the research environments of their institutions. With help from corporate, governmental, and private sponsors, we provide undergraduate summer research fellowships for students to work with their faculty mentors.
The Council on Undergraduate Research, founded in 1978, is a national organization of individual and institutional members representing over 870 colleges and universities.
NASA Fellowships (Summer Faculty Fellows/ASEE)
NASA-ASEE 2001 Summer Faculty Fellowship in Aeronautics and Space Research
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA/ California Institute of Technology
10 weeks, June - August, 2001
Program Description: Approximately twenty-six Fellows will conduct research and engineering investigations at JPL with a senior scientist or engineer on a topic of mutual interest. Supplementing the research activity is a full program of seminars and laboratory tours designed to give the Fellows an overview of the rich variety of work that takes place at JPL.
Project ALERT (NASA/California State University)
ALERT stands for "Augmented Learning Environment and Renewable Teaching." The overarching goal is to promote awareness, appreciation and understanding of Planet Earth to millions of students and the general public. The main pathway for achieving the ALERT goal is through partnering NASA centers with educational institutions responsible for teacher preparation. The regional consortiums in California for this joint venture of earth science education involves the NASA Ames Research Center, the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California State University (CSU) system.
Specific objectives of the ALERT project:
- Bringing NASA information and technology into teacher preparation classrooms;
- Bringing CSU expertise in science content and pedagogy into the design of NASA educational products and policies;
- Facilitating systemic and curriculum renovation through statewide educational system;
- Facilitating systemic and programmatic renovation through the infusion of CSU educational information into NASA processes;
- Producing a significant body of educational data products that employs cutting-edge technology;
- Linking with and supporting the NASA projects: ESSE (Earth System Science Education) and NOVA (NASA Opportunities for Visionary Academics);
- Replicating similar consortia nationwide
Earth Studies At JPL
Although Earth is our home, we still have much to discover about it. At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, we are using a myriad of scientific instruments to study our changing planet.
The atmosphere around us holds keys to why we are able to live on our planet without the aid of the special equipment we need in space. Several projects at JPL are studying weather, climate and the evolving composition of the air around us.
The solid surface of the Earth is changing over many different time scales. Land studies are being conducted from the ground, air and even from space. These studies will help us understand how we induce, modify, or inhibit those changes.
Oceans cover more than two thirds of the surface of our planet. This vast quantity of water affects the weather and climate, and is partly responsible for the balance of atmospheric gases. Instruments on the surface of the ocean, on board ships, and in space are providing information about our oceans and their effect on local and global conditions.
Earth Studies at NASA
JPL SUMMER SCHOOLS & INSTITUTES
NASA's Planetary Science Summer School
NASA's Planetary Science Summer School offers a "crash course" in what it takes to develop a mission concept into a proposable mission design. Described by advisor Dr. Jim Head of Brown University as a "boot camp for future principal investigators," the school presents an overview of instrumentation (both in-situ and remote sensing), systems engineering, and the NASA proposal process. Students will participate in a team activity to develop a mission proposal, using the Project Design Center at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Planetary Data Systems
The Planetary Data System (PDS) archives and distributes digital data from past and present NASA planetary missions, astronomical observations, and laboratory measurements. The PDS is sponsored by NASA's Office of Space Science to ensure the long-term usability of data, to stimulate research, to facilitate data access, and to support correlative analysis.
PODAAC
The Physical Oceanography Distributed Active Archive Center (PO.DAAC), an element of the Earth Observing System Data Information System (EOSDIS), is responsible for archiving and distributing data relevant to the physical state of the ocean. Most of the products available at the PO.DAAC were obtained from satellites and are intended for use in oceanographic and interdisciplinary scientific research. However, a limited number of educational products are also available. Please refer to the on-line data catalog and order form for a listing of available PO.DAAC data products. All PO.DAAC holdings are free of charge to scientists, educators and the community at large.
Earth Observing System Data and Information System (EOSDIS)
At present, EOSDIS manages data from NASA's past and current Earth science research satellites and field measurement programs, providing data archiving, distribution, and information management services. During the EOS era that started with the launch of the TRMM satellite in 1997, EOSDIS will command and control satellites and instruments, and will generate useful products from orbital observations. EOSDIS will also generate data sets made by assimilation of satellite and in situ observations into global climate models.
