THE UNIVERSITY OF OREGON UCORE PROGRAM, SUMMER UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PROJECTS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE PHYSICAL SCIENCES STUDENTS AND FOLLOW-UP "CATALYTIC" ACTIVITIES

The University of Oregon Undergraduate Catalytic Outreach and Research Experience (UCORE) program brings 20-24 community college students annually to the UO campus to undertake 10-week summer research experiences in the physical sciences (Chemistry, Geological Sciences and Physics). The goal of this NSF STEP-supported project is to increase the number of four-year physical sciences degrees awarded at Oregon universities. After completing summer activities, students return to their community college campuses to undertake academic year activities such as tutoring, lab TA-ing, science demo shows, presenting at science conferences, and K-12 outreach designed to 'catalyze' other students to complete 4-year physical sciences degree programs.

Many of the participants come from non college-background families, haven't taken calculus, and/or have never lived away from their home towns. The summer program thus focuses on the social as well as the research side of the experience, for example students are subdivided into cross-disciplinary "pods," led by science graduate students, that meet weekly. With this support network, and daily interactions with graduate student mentors in their individual research groups, UCORE participants are able to accomplish substantive research efforts. For example, Julie of Lane Community College undertook mass-47 paleothermometry of Flinders Range, Australian carbonates to characterize temperatures during the Cambrian explosion.

Feedback from participants, project-sponsoring research faculty, and community college liaisons has been quite positive. Over three years the number of offered UCORE summer research projects has steadily increased. The trends in annual transfer into 4-year science programs are flat at participating community colleges, but declining at non-participant institutions. A new assessment tool will help evaluate the ‘catalytic activity’ of different types of academic year activities.