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Undergraduate Institutions as Catalysts for Integrating Research Across Disciplines and Communities of Learners

Susan M. Libes, Department of Marine Science and Chemistry
Joseph T. Bennett, Director of Environmental Quality Lab, Department of Marine Science
Sharon L. Gilman, Department of Biology
Valgene L. Dunham, NSF-AIRE Program Director,
John P. Idoux, NSF-AIRE Principal Investigator

Coastal Carolina University
Conway, SC 29528

The NSF-AIRE funded outreach programs at Coastal Carolina University (CCU) focused on our natural resources and local environmental issues of direct concern to the students and the community. One of our goals was to develop curricula that supported the new state science standards that stressed inquiry-based interdisciplinary activities. Our programs brought CCU undergraduates and faculty together with local pre-college teachers and students to work together on research and educational activities. 

The Rivers Project 

Coastal Carolina University is located in one of the most rapidly growing regions of the United States. Wise land-use decisions are especially critical because more than half of our service area is covered by jurisdictional wetlands. The local county land-use plan advocates environmental education efforts to bring awareness and increased knowledge to bear on these issues,¹ and there is a critical need for more scientific information on the local wetlands and watershed. To address both the educational and research needs, NSF-AIRE funding was used to organize the Rivers Project, a volunteer water-quality monitoring program involving local high-school students and teachers. The Rivers Project employs standard U.S. EPA analytical methods whose results can be used to formulate action plans for improving water quality.

Volunteer monitoring has a long tradition in the United States. In 1989, the U.S. EPA began encouraging states to use data from these programs in preparing local components of their required annual 305(b) water quality assessments (National Water Quality Inventory Report to Congress).² Volunteer monitoring was designed to fill in data gaps that exist because of limited funding for professional water quality analyses. In 1991, the U.S. EPA stated that they could consider quality-assured chemical/physical and benthic macroinvertebrate data produced by trained volunteers as “monitored”, i.e. on par with professional data. At last count in January 2001, 3000 volunteer monitoring programs existed across 30 states.³ In many cases, these waters would go unmonitored if volunteers were not involved. 

The U.S. EPA continues to support volunteer efforts by maintaining Web pages⁴ devoted to dissemination of monitoring and quality control instructions,^5,6 watershed quality data,⁷ a list of active monitoring groups,³ and a newsletter, The Volunteer Monitor.⁸ Suggestions for funding sources are located in the US EPA’s Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection.⁹ A significant amount of pre-college curricular materials is also available.¹⁰ 

Following this tradition, our goal was to provide quality control so that volunteer monitoring could generate data useful to regulatory entities such as South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (S.C. DHEC). Under the aegis of the U.S. EPA and S.C. DHEC, we became an official volunteer monitoring chapter, named the Waccamaw Waterwatchers, after the Waccamaw River that defines our major watershed. 

The Waccamaw monitoring program was built on the experiences of environmental chemists at CCU working with undergraduates. Our background was extensive, as we support an area of emphasis in environmental chemistry within our College’s chemistry major.¹¹ Our majors work in a state-certified Environmental Quality Lab (EQL) as interns and researchers. This lab was developed in the early 1990’s to provide hands-on experience for our undergraduates as well as to meet regional needs for environmental quality measurements and research. The EQL is currently engaged in traditional research funded by the U.S. EPA’s 319 Program, S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and S.C. DHEC involving the study of non-point source pollution in nearby rivers and the coastal zone. The EQL was recently renovated using funds from NSF’s Academic Research Infrastructure Facilities Modernization program. Analytical instrumentation was acquired with NSF funds from the Major Research Instrumentation and Instrumentation and Laboratory Improvement programs. Thus we had the laboratory infrastructure, research and teaching experience to undertake a large-scale monitoring program involving laypersons.

Objectives

The primary objective of the Rivers Project was to provide an opportunity for students to learn about non-point source pollution and its relation to local land use by working on a research project. The Rivers Project was designed to engage students in experimental design, hands-on field and lab work as well as data handling and presentation of scientific results. Problem-solving skills were emphasized and knowledge of local geography was stressed. We used the U.S. EPA’s Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual⁴ and developed our own curricular materials where needed. Students used their results to propose action plans designed to improve water quality within their watershed.

We focused on eutrophication, a non-point source pollution problem that reflects the variable consequences of nutrient loading. Nutrients include dissolved nitrogen and phosphorus in the forms of nitrate, nitrite, ammonium and phosphate that are flushed into waterways largely by storm water runoff (rainfall containing ammonium can also be significant). Rain leaches nutrients that have been deposited on the land in the form of excess fertilizers or feces. Once in waterways, the nutrients fuel algal growth, often seen as a green scum on the water’s surface. Once these plants or their consumers die, the resulting organic remains are decomposed by aerobic bacteria. The oxygen demand of the bacteria can be large enough to create hypoxia (conditions of low dissolved oxygen) and even anoxia (no dissolved oxygen remaining). This problem is especially acute in the summer when oxygen solubility is already low. The syndrome of eutrophication is of such concern that the U.S. EPA has drafted water quality criteria to identify areas at risk. These freshwater criteria are region specific and still under review.¹² The criteria provide benchmarks for comparison that are easy to use and understand, but they need refinement before they can be applied to all ecosystems within the specified regions. The state of South Carolina recently updated its aquatic water standards to include some of these criteria.¹³ 

The criteria we used included water concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, dissolved oxygen and turbidity. Most of the other analytes we measured (pH, alkalinity, total coliforms, E. coli, total dissolved solids, dissolved iron, true color) influenced or were influenced by the eutrophication phenomenon and thus their values could be interpreted in the same context. For example, high concentrations of E. coli observed in conjunction with high nutrient levels and turbidity supported the conclusion that the nutrients were derived from a major fecal source. Low concentrations of total dissolved solids suggested significant input of rainwater.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has also drafted a set of criteria for coastal marine waters.¹⁴ We use these criteria in our undergraduate marine chemistry class to test the hypothesis that non-point source pollution has had a significant impact on the water quality of the coastal zone in Horry County.¹⁵ The students have observed that most of the creeks emptying into the ocean are significantly impacted. As an independent study project funded under the NSF-AIRE program, we have extended this work to a pristine site on Waites Island, in an effort to study a locale that has not been developed. The student researchers have characterized water quality in an area that has not been impacted to produce a refined set of benchmarks that can be used by our marine chemistry students and for the Rivers Project.¹⁶ 

Strategy

Our first task in the Rivers Project was to create monitoring teams in high schools within the watershed. In the first year, we involved ten of the local area high schools. In the summer before the school year started, we conducted a training session on campus for high-school science teachers recruited via letters and phone calls. Several of the teachers were graduates of the College who had obtained masters degrees and teaching certifications via the S.C. Critical Needs Program. The training workshop covered information on the local watershed that could serve as a curricular basis for the water quality study. The teachers were also given instruction in the use of the sampling and analysis equipment. This workshop featured S.C. DHEC’s watershed manager (a graduate of CCU’s marine science program), the director of South Carolina’s Waterwatch Program, CCU faculty and undergraduate interns. 

Figure 1: Horry County High-School Teachers attending an in-service training session at Playcard Environmental Center learn how to use water quality monitoring kits.

 
The teachers selected their sites, made travel provisions and set up a sampling schedule. Due to the extensive network of rivers and wetlands in our county, all of the schools were within a five-minute drive of a suitable sampling site. Students first performed visual site assessments to note any potential pollution sources and to fully describe their site. The teams then sampled their sites once a month during the fall and spring terms. We decided to provide continuous on-site support during sample collection and monitoring because we found that the more support we provided, the better the quality of the data. In most cases, we sent either a lab technician or an undergraduate intern out with the sampling equipment. The equipment was organized into six kits built around Hach’s CEL 890 Advanced Portable Laboratory. These kits were returned to the lab for servicing and restocking after each use. 

Our equipment helped ensure data quality in two ways. First, we invested in as many in-situ sensors as were commercially available. We chose Hach’s equipment due to its high quality, ruggedness and the company’s experience working with student groups.¹⁷ Thus we were able to measure pH, total dissolved solids (via conductivity), dissolved oxygen, temperature and turbidity on site. On site measurements reduced sample collection and preservation problems, expedited acquisition of data and helped students better relate their results to visible conditions at their sampling sites. Secondly, we followed U.S. EPA methods and quality control procedures.^5,6 

The high-school laboratories measured alkalinity, true color, phosphate, nitrate, and iron in the samples using Hach’s CEL 890 Advanced Portable Laboratory. For these tests, the analyte is reacted with a color-forming reagent. In accord with Beer’s Law, the intensity of the color is directly proportional to the analyte concentration. The color is measured as the absorbance of visible light at a characteristic wavelength using a DR 890 colorimeter. The colorimeter is preprogrammed with a calibration curve that students check against a standard of known concentration. (This equipment also provides an opportunity for teaching instrument theory in advanced chemistry classes.) Total coliforms and E. coli were measured with Hach’s m-Coli Blue media. All of the media and filters were purchased pre-sterilized, thereby reducing reagent preparation. We provided incubators and the high schools provided microscopes.

Figure 2: Socastee high-school students use the Hach in-situ probe to measure dissolved oxygen.

 
Water quality parameters encompass environmental conditions that can change substantially over many time scales. To make a more integrated assessment of water quality, students used a common biotic indicator, benthic invertebrates, which are mostly insects, arthropods and crustaceans. Some species are more sensitive to pollution than others, so the species diversity and abundances are used to establish an index of biological quality. Thus students had to collect and identify these organisms. Undergraduate research projects were concurrently collecting samples to generate a reference collection of typical organisms, as none exists for the unique black-water rivers ecosystems in Horry County. The high school students’ data for species abundance and numbers within a species were then compared to our reference collection to assess degrees of human impact. 

Handling the Results

Students tabulated their data on forms that included calculations and quality control results. The data were collated and validated at CCU. Corrections were made as needed and the results displayed on our Web site.¹⁸ As shown in Figure 3, the data were presented so as to illustrate site-to-site differences in average concentrations as well as their relation to the benchmark criteria. Figure 1 shows that average phosphate concentrations at each high school’s sampling site are, in general, higher than the state water quality criteria for fresh waters. These averages represent the result of monthly sampling from September through June, so they include a significant amount of seasonally driven variability (as indicated by the large error bars at some sites). The results suggest the occurrence of nutrient loading and the potential for eutrophication problems. Similar results were observed for nitrate and turbidity. Figure 4 shows sites with elevated phosphate levels tended to have elevated nitrate levels. The correlation between the parameters was strong (r = +0.85), suggesting a similar source for both nutrients.

We had planned to convene a student congress at CCU to bring together all the participating classes and their teachers at the end of their school year, but this turned out to be a logistical nightmare. Instead, CCU staff held separate workshops at each high school. During these sessions, we asked the students to interpret the entire body of data and use their conclusions to develop action plans. The data interpretation included a collaborative analysis of graphs to identify trends and to determine which sites exceeded water quality criteria. An effort was made to suggest reasons for these sites exceeding the criteria, including an analysis of possible problems with data quality or our sampling design. At the conclusion of the workshop, students were asked to outline an action plan that could remedy the observed pollution problems. As shown in Table 1, the action plans identified most often were related to stormwater pollution and eutrophication. The action plans were presented at a workshop for local government staff designed to teach strategies for dealing with nonpoint source pollution. This staff workshop is part of a U.S. EPA 319 Program project, entitled NEMO (Nonpoint Source Education for Municipal Officials) and is being conducted by the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and Clemson University.

Figure 5: Socastee high-school students collating their monitoring data at the end of the year to look for geographic and temporal trends.

 
Table 1: Action Plans

• Personal
  • Use fertilizers carefully.
  • Stop bilge pumping.
  • Keep cars tuned up. Use carpools. Use public transportation. 
  • Dispose of car oil properly. 
  • Plant more trees.
  • Recycle more. Use fewer polluting products. 
  • Pick up litter. Don’t litter. Participate in community efforts to remove litter.
  • Use water filters at home. 
  • Dispose of pet wastes properly.
• Government
  • Regulate use of pesticides and fertilizers on golf courses and farms. 
  • Make laws uniform and strict. Have more law enforcement.
  • Test septic tanks.
  • Clean up roads.
  • Build more water treatment facilities.
  • Require recycling in restaurants.
  • Require emission inspections of cars and oil recycling.
  • Fine boaters who pollute.
  • Make environmentally safe products more available.
  • Educate about pollution.
• Land Use
  • Increase regulations on new development. 
  • Require buffer zones around bodies of water.
  • Limit additional impervious surfaces.
  • Improve drainage systems.
  • Keep sewage plants out of sensitive areas.
  • Upgrade septic design requirements.

Connections

We took advantage of many opportunities for synergy. The Rivers Project established links with faculty and undergraduate research projects and internships. Project personnel ran hands-on workshops in the community on non-point pollution sources with local environmental groups and environmental education centers. CCU held a science day for middle school students. An important partner in our efforts is the Waccamaw Science and Math Hub,¹⁹ an NSF entity. With funding from another U.S. EPA grant, we purchased a sophisticated working model of a watershed to create interactive demonstrations of non-point source pollution.²⁰ This model was very popular with the students and teachers. 

Our efforts received publicity from the local newspapers and were featured in the newsletter of the S.C. DHEC’s Waterwatch program.²¹ The lead author, Dr. Susan Libes, gave a keynote speech about our NSF-AIRE work and the Rivers project at the University of Tennessee’s 2001 Chemistry Honor’s Awards Banquet. 

We leveraged our NSF-AIRE grant funding to obtain support from the Walmart Corporation’s Clean Air - Clean Water Program and the International Paper Company. This support enabled us to keep our kits stocked and in good repair after the NSF-AIRE grant ended. We were also awarded funds by the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Education Program to set up a community-based monitoring group made up of politically active senior citizens. This monitoring group shared equipment with the Rivers Project.

Outcomes and Assessment

Our outcomes fall into three categories: (1) data and action plans, (2) permanent curricula revisions and adoptions and (3) assessment data. The complete data set and the action plans are available on the Project’s Web site ( http://www.coastal.edu/envsci/rivers/ ). One undergraduate research project on benthic invertebrates resulted in a final report. Several schools decided to make permanent curricula revisions. Participation in the program varied from six to ten schools during the grant funding period. Maintaining this level of activity required a part-time technician. 

Assessment activities included surveys given to the high school students at the beginning and end of each school year to determine their initial knowledge base and to assess the impact of the program. A student intern synthesized the results as part of her final report. She questioned the validity of the survey as the students were not graded and thus did not appear to make a serious effort to answer the questions. We surveyed the teachers at the start and end of the program to assess how much knowledge they gained but few surveys were returned. In retrospect, these surveys should have been administered while a support staff member from CCU was on site to ensure a better return rate.

After a dinner at CCU for the participating teachers, we held a brainstorming session to discuss future collaborative efforts. As a group, the teachers voiced approval of the Rivers Project. They felt that the project had delivered on its promise to provide hands-on, inquiry-based experiences with environmental issues. Several teachers asked for help in supporting self-directed student research projects, including organization of an annual science fair. 

Future Plans

Our biggest challenge has been in stabilizing each school’s program so that our efforts will continue beyond the end date of our NSF-AIRE funding. This required addressing three major issues. First, we needed to demonstrate how the new curriculum assists in attaining S.C.’s pre-college science standards. Second, we needed to establish a funding source to cover supplies and kit maintenance as well as staff salary. Third, we needed to coordinate with changes in teacher in the high schools to maintain contact with a group of interested faculty. At this point, our biggest successes have been with the high schools that have chosen to buy their own kits and are working independently. At this time, we are actively pursuing development of a watershed-wide volunteer monitoring program in partnership with the new Waccamaw Riverkeeper^TM. We also participated in another NSF project, Rising Tide, which established research and curriculum linkages with high school and college faculty. This project produced a curriculum for bacteria monitoring.²² We have since conducted several training workshops for the SC Marine Educators Association and the National Marine Educators Association as well as local school districts to disseminate this addition to the water quality testing protocol. 

In the summer of 2002, Dr. Libes hosted a workshop at CCU for college teachers funded by a grant from the NSF’s Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement National Dissemination Program. This workshop is one of several being offered during the summers of 2000-2006 to disseminate the results of college curriculum changes stimulated by science faculty who participated in NSF Undergraduate Faculty Enhancement workshops that focused on environmental problem-solving. For the past decade, these NSF UFE workshops have been conducted by the Great Lakes Research Consortium.²³

Playcard Environmental Education Center

The non-profit Playcard Environmental Education Center (PEEC)²⁴ in Horry County, South Carolina, was founded in 1987 by the Horry County Conservation Foundation with this statement of purpose:

“ … to provide sufficient data, analysis, and publicity so the people of Horry County understand the condition of the county’s natural resources and realize the need for effective conservation.”

PEEC presently controls over 200 acres of land, including an 80-acre blackwater swamp, an increasingly rare habitat unique to the southeastern United States. The rest of the land includes high ground adjacent to the swamp, mitigated wetland sites, pastureland, and forest, much of it protected as wildlife conservation areas. This diversity of habitat contains an extraordinary variety of plants and animals. Local school students and other citizens visit the center to learn about these plants and animals and how humans are interconnected with this natural world. 

The Horry County School District has provided an on-site teacher to staff PEEC. In 2001, the school district took over operations of the Center. Since its inception, thousands of public and private school students have visited PEEC and many teachers have attended special environmental workshops, such as one sponsored by Project WILD²⁵. PEEC holds an annual open-house called Swampfest, which is usually attended by upwards of a thousand local people. 

At the start of our NSF-AIRE funding, the on-site teacher at PEEC had a background in physical education and mostly taught natural history to elementary school students. No inquiry-based scientific experimentation or monitoring was being conducted. CCU was supposed to be a working partner in conducting classes and research at PEEC, but this was not happening. 

Our NSF-AIRE proposal provided funding to expand activities at PEEC by:

establishing stipends for undergraduate students majoring in science and education. These stipends enabled the students to travel to PEEC to work with the on-site teacher to develop new inquiry-based science programs for local K-12 students.

establishing a research grant program in which high-school teachers submit proposals for research at PEEC involving their students, using undergraduate students and/or CCU faculty as mentors.

hiring a teaching/postdoctoral university faculty member to plan, direct, and coordinate research at the Center. This position was jointly funded with CCU, who hired Dr. Sharon Gilman into the Biology department as an instructor of Biology and director of NSF-AIRE research at PEEC. 

Dr. Gilman and CCU’s Office of Public Relations developed a brochure and began advertising the new programs available at PEEC. The brochure was distributed to all PEEC members and visitors. Dr. Gilman also taught a graduate course, Wetland Ecology for Teachers, which included work at PEEC. This familiarized teachers with new opportunities at the center. Dr. Gilman also presented information on the program at the South Carolina and Georgia Marine Educators Association Conference in October 1998 and at the Society of Wetland Scientists Annual Conference in May 2000. 
 
Annually, we put out a request for proposals for $500 grants to high-school teachers to support research at PEEC. Funds were used for equipment and supplies for field and follow-up lab work, plus travel. Three teachers and approximately 100 students participated in this program from 1998 to 2001. One teacher brought his biology research class to PEEC for three years in a row to do an extensive ecosystem study covering everything from soil profiles to water quality, adding to their data set each year. At the end of each year, they produced a video of their research and written reports. This teacher has continued to bring his class to PEEC at least once annually to continue this project. The other two teachers each brought several classes to PEEC to do scientific observation. One of these teachers brought along several colleagues in math and writing who used PEEC as a way to tie their curriculum together. In each case, the classes were accompanied by CCU faculty members and one or two undergraduate science majors interested in teaching. 

Undergraduate research at PEEC centered around two projects. Ten CCU undergraduates participated in annual wood duck box monitoring and six worked on an extensive macroinvertebrate survey. The wood duck study was entirely field-based and gave the students an opportunity to learn some of the skills required in wildlife management and field research. The macroinvertebrate survey had a field component and lab work that involved keying out families. We established a reference collection of macroinvertebrates for use at PEEC, and with the Rivers Project’s macroinvertebrate surveys. At Swampfest and Baby Animal Day, which is targeted toward elementary school students, we conducted interactive workshops that introduced the public and students to the “bugs” of the swamp. We added a significant science component to Baby Animal Day, which had previously been devoted mostly to agricultural and historical activities. 

We established an internship program at PEEC for CCU undergraduates interested in environmental education. Each year, we had two undergraduate interns who were science majors interested in teaching, and one elementary education major interested in science. The undergraduates worked with the on-site teacher to develop new inquiry-based curricula and educational displays for PEEC. In most cases, these students got some teaching experience by conducting their programs before classes. The interns participated in PEEC’s annual Swampfest and Baby Animal Day and brought interactive science displays to several local festivals including Can-Am Days at Huntington Beach State Park and Lowcountry Culture Day at Brookgreen Gardens. 

Synergistic Activities

Research involving the benthic macroinvertebrate populations in Playcard Swamp led to the creation of a reference collection, which was made available to teachers involved in the Rivers Project.

As a result of the increased awareness at CCU, several new connections have developed between the University and PEEC. CCU science faculty members now take their classes, especially classes for in-service teachers, to PEEC for ecological fieldwork. Our Division of Extended Learning and Public Services uses PEEC as a site for outdoor, science-related classes in their Lifelong Learning program for senior citizens. Faculty members who teach creative writing take their classes to the forests and swampland of PEEC for experience in nature writing. Finally, our Physical Education majors use PEEC for Outdoor Experiential Education classes.

Future Plans 

In the final year of the NSF-AIRE grant, the Horry County School District took control of operations at PEEC. They hired an on-site teacher with a background in science who adopted standards-based science curriculum for grades K-5. The new teacher has embraced the environmental education intern program started under the auspices of the NSF-AIRE grant. CCU is planning to institutionalize this program for the benefit of both our science and education majors. As of 2003, nearly every elementary teacher and his/her students visit PEEC annually for a science program tailored to meet the state and national academic standards for each particular grade level. In this respect, the take-over by the school district has been a huge success. While there are tentative plans for encouraging middle and high school classes to also take advantage of PEEC, these have not yet come to fruition due largely to funding issues. 

Through CCU’s increased work at PEEC and with the Rivers Project, faculty in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences have greatly improved their relationship with the Horry County School District. For example, the District’s Curriculum Development office has begun to conduct professional development days at PEEC for high school science teachers. The first workshop was held in the summer of 2002. Its goal was to help the teachers see the potential for inquiry-based science activities at PEEC. This workshop included a session on the Rivers Project run by CCU faculty. We are also working toward moving CCU’s astronomy classes to PEEC. The darkness at this site is amenable to telescope use and this move would give local students and the public access to our telescopes.

Assessment

Like all challenging projects, not all of our proposed NSF-AIRE activities were completely successful. We would have liked more public schools to participate in our outreach projects but found that communication with some teachers was a struggle. We eventually learned how to facilitate communication, but wished we had developed these skills earlier. We had to invest a lot of time ensuring that each teacher actually received each communication, whether e-mail, US Mail or phone messages, because messages were often not transferred from the school’s main office to the individual teachers. We also learned to accommodate the high school teacher’s very busy workday schedules by contacting them in the evenings or weekends. 

We had also hoped for more participation of our undergraduates in the Rivers Project and at PEEC. We found that most undergraduates could not schedule large enough blocks of time to become meaningfully engaged at sites off campus. We resolved this problem by hiring technicians who worked part time for the EQL and part time for the NSF-AIRE project. Scheduling also became a stumbling block in organizing an annual student congress for the Rivers Project. To solve this problem, we conducted data analysis and synthesis sessions at each school and had a program dinner/debriefing session with the teachers at the end of the program. 

Our equipment choices turned out to be the strength of the Rivers Project. The equipment was rugged and user friendly. Unfortunately, it is relatively expensive. Given the state’s current budgetary climate, it is unlikely that individual schools will purchase their own equipment. We have instituted a loan program and are seeking external sources of funding and partnerships. Finally, as all of us are finding, maintaining Web pages is a largely unfunded mandate. We continue to seek undergraduate interns to help us.

Our outreach efforts with the local pre-college teachers and their students have taught us that collaborations between CCU and high schools do work and they enhance the activities of both parties. We perceive our biggest success to be in providing a hands-on, inquiry-based experience to the students and faculty of both groups. We also had success in involving community groups in the Rivers Project and at PEEC. Some schools have made a commitment to continue their new curricular activities. This suggests that they perceive that the new curriculum helps students meet South Carolina’s new science education standards, including the requirement of direct participation in research activities. We look forward to continuing these collaborations and we are especially eager to support teachers trying to engage high-school students in self-directed research projects. 
 
 
Acknowledgements
 
The authors wish to thank the National Science Foundation for their vision in creating the AIRE Grant opportunity and the 1998-2001 Board members of PEEC, Amelia Hadfield, and especially James Blanton who founded PEEC. They also wish to thank the Coastal Carolina University administration and the Board of Trustees for the additional support provided as enhancement to the grant funds. The following faculty, technicians and students were also important contributors: Dr. Kim Weaver (now at Southeastern Utah University), Nicole Short, Matt Cline, Megan Thompson and Diane Tulipiani.
 
 
The Institution: 

Coastal Carolina University (CCU) was one of the ten predominantly undergraduate, liberal-arts institutions recognized by the National Science Foundation in 1998 with an AIRE Award for exemplary efforts in the integration of research and education. CCU is the only publicly assisted institution in this group. CCU is relatively young, having been founded in 1954 by the citizens of Horry County, South Carolina, as an independent two-year college. The institution became part of the University of South Carolina system in 1961 and awarded its first four-year degrees in 1975. In 1993, CCU seceded from the University of South Carolina system to become a state-assisted university with its own Board of Trustees. This action continues to be a singular event in the evolution of CCU as the institution defines and articulates its own mission and establishes its own independent culture.

The main campus is located in Conway, Horry County, South Carolina, ten miles inland from the resort community of Myrtle Beach and the Atlantic coastline. Our undergraduate enrollment is approximately 6000. The College of Natural and Applied Sciences is the largest academic unit on campus with about 1600 majors. Students can major or minor in biology, chemistry, computer science, marine science, mathematics, psychology, and sociology. Minors are also offered in environmental science, geology, physics, actuarial science and statistics. The College plays an important role in supporting the core curriculum of the University, as all non-science majors are required to take two science and two mathematics courses. In fall 2003, the first students were admitted to a new masters program in Coastal, Marine and Wetland Studies.

Over the past eight years, Coastal Carolina University (CCU), and particularly the College of Natural and Applied Sciences, has focused on integrating research with traditional educational activities. Faculty view themselves as teacher-scholars whose instructional and creative activities are mutually supportive. The NSF-AIRE grant has enabled CCU to enhance continuing efforts and create several new initiatives. These efforts fall into the following categories:

Strengthening ties with the local public school system, particularly in pre-college teacher training.

Expanding opportunities for undergraduate research, including formal efforts to involve freshmen and sophomores.

Developing novel curricula for the non-science majors seeking to fulfill their core curriculum requirements in science.

Many of the programs reflect the long tradition of interdisciplinary research and study at the College. For example, the marine science program, which currently enrolls approximately 600 majors, is one of the largest on the east coast. CCU was the first institution in the state of South Carolina to develop an area of emphasis in environmental chemistry within the undergraduate chemistry degree program. Interdisciplinary minors include environmental science and a proposed program in wetland science. Regional interest in related interdisciplinary research led to the creation of the Center for Marine and Wetland Studies that has provided a focal point for community interests and undergraduate and faculty research. 

These interdisciplinary efforts include: 

Support for undergraduate research by students in wetland biology and environmental chemistry that focuses on aquatic and marine pollution at Waites Island, a nearby undeveloped barrier island. 

Development of Introduction to Science, an interdisciplinary science lecture and lab course for non-majors that was designed to meet university core curriculum requirements. Non-science majors are encouraged to take Introduction to Science as their first science course, so enrollments are large. Approximately 325 students in Fall 2001 were distributed between four lecture and twelve laboratory sections.

Development of two interdisciplinary research courses to provide a formal means by which freshmen and sophomores could prepare to conduct independent study or research projects within their majors. These research courses enabled students to be involved in some phase of research throughout their undergraduate years. NSF-AIRE funding supported fellowships used to recruit and retain promising research students.

Development of the Rivers Project, a program involving local high schools and communities in monitoring and assessing environmental quality.

Support of student and teacher research activities at the Playcard Environmental Education Center, a community-based environmental education center located in a nearby black water wetlands.

The NSF-AIRE funded outreach programs were designed primarily to build permanent relationships between CCU faculty and the pre-college teachers. The goals of this relationship were to develop curricula to support the new science standards by working directly with teachers and students. At the time of our award, the state of South Carolina had initiated a major effort to improve science teaching and learning in the kindergarten through high school curricula. The keystone was the adoption of a detailed set of learning standards stressing inquiry-based, interdisciplinary approaches. To assist, the University dedicated significant resources to increasing linkages with the local school system, particularly in the area of teacher training. For example, CCU hosts the office of the Waccamaw Science and Math Hub, which is funded by NSF’s Systemic Science Initiative. CCU also administered South Carolina’s Critical Needs Certification Program, which provided alternative teacher certification until 2001. (The replacement is entitled “Program of Alternative Certification for Educators” (PACE)). Critical needs are largest in the areas of science and mathematics. Members of the College’s faculty offer on-campus training for high school teachers who wish to conduct advanced placement courses in science and mathematics. The SC Sea Grant Consortium has funded several teacher-training courses under its Coast Team Program, which have been taught on campus by marine science faculty.
 
 
Endnotes

1. “(The county should) Promote and form partnerships with local non-profit organizations and conservation groups to secure grants and support environmental public education programs throughout the county with special emphasis within the county school system.”, p. III-28, Horry County Comprehensive Plan, March 16, 1999, EDAW, Inc., Horry County, South Carolina.
    
2. Guidelines for Preparation of the Comprehensive State Water Quality Assessments (305(b) Reports) and Electronic Updates, Supplement (Volume 2) Section 1: Water Quality Assessments Under Section 305(b), EPA 841-B-97-002B, can be downloaded from the U.S. EPA at http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/guidelines.html
    
3. http://www.epa.gov/adopt/  U.S. EPA: Adopt Your Watershed, August 7, 2003.
    
4. http://www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/vol.html  U.S. EPA Monitoring Water Quality: Volunteer Monitoring, September 9, 2003.
   
5. The Volunteer Monitor’s Guide to Quality Assurance Project Plans, EPA 841-B-96-003, can be downloaded from the U.S. EPA at http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/qappcovr.htm
    
6. Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual, EPA 841-B-97-003 can be downloaded from the U.S. EPA at http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/stream/
    
7. http://www.epa.gov/waters/  U.S. EPA: Watershed Assessment, Tracking and Environmental ResultS, January 3, 2003.
    
8. Back issues of The Volunteer Monitor: The National Newsletter of Volunteer Water Quality Monitoring can be downloaded from the U.S. EPA at http://www.epa.gov/volunteer/issues.htm
    
9. Catalog of Federal Funding Sources for Watershed Protection, Second Edition, EPA 841-B-99-003, can be downloaded from the US EPA at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/fund.html
    
10. Summary descriptions of about 120 water education curricula are available at http://www.uwex.edu/erc/eypaw/  University of Wisconsin, Environmental Resources Center: Educating Young People About Water, October 8, 2003. 
     
11. A description of the unique elements of this program can be found in: Libes, S.M. 1999. Learning Quality Assurance/Quality Control Using U.S. EPA Techniques: An Undergraduate Course for Environmental Chemistry Majors. Journal of Chemical Education, 76:1642-1648 and Libes, S.M. 1999. Constructing Environmental Impact Statements: An Organizational Focus for Teaching Analytical Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education, 76: 1649-1656. 
     
12. http://www.epa.gov/OST/standards/nutrient.html  U.S. EPA: Office of Water, Water Quality Criteria and Standards: National Nutrient Criteria Development, November 21, 2003.
     
13. R. 61-68, Water Classification and Standards, S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, Approved as revised, November 28, 2001. Available for download at http://www.scdhec.net/water/html/reg.html
     
14. Bricker, S.B., C.G. Clement, D.E. Pirhalla, S.P. Orlando, and D.R.G. Farrow. 1999. National Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment: Effects of Nutrient Enrichment in the Nation’s Estuaries. NOAA, National Ocean Service, Special Projects Office and the National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science. Silver Spring, MD: 71 pp. Available for download at: http://spo.nos.noaa.gov/projects/cads/nees/Eutro_Report.pdf
     
15. Libes, S and J. Guentzel. 2001. Estuarine Eutrophication Assessment: A Unifying Approach For Laboratory Instruction, Abstract, Estuarine Research Federation 2001: An Estuarine Odyssey, St. Pete Beach, Florida, November 4-8, 2001.
     
16. Yencho, M., N. Spivey, S. Libes and J. Guentzel. 2001. Eutrophication Assessment Of Swashes In The Grand Strand Area, South Carolina, Abstract, 53rd American Chemical Society’s Southeast Regional Meeting, September 23-25, 2001, Savannah, GA and Spivey, N., and S. Libes. 2001. Eutrophication Assessment On Waites Island, Abstract, 53rd American Chemical Society’s Southeast Regional Meeting, September 23-25, 2001, Savannah, GA.
     
17. http://www.hach.com  Hach Company: How the World Tests Water, 2003^©.
     
18. http://www.coastal.edu/envsci/rivers/  Coastal Carolina University: NSF Rivers Project, 2003^©.
     
19. http://scssi.scetv.org/wms/  South Carolina Systemic Science Initiative: Waccamaw Science and Math Hub, accessed December 8, 2003.
     
20. http://www.enviroscapes.com/  EnviroScapes®: Welcome to Enviroscape, accessed December 8, 2003. 
     
21. http://www.scdhec.net/water/html/wtrwatch.html  S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control Bureau of Water: South Carolina Waterwatch Program, October 29, 2003.
     
22. Rising Tide Activities from Year 1, http://kingfish.coastal.edu/marine/risingtide/activities.htm  Click on hot link labeled “Bacterial Water Quality Testing: A Rising Tide Project for Grades 9 and 10”, accessed December 8, 2003.
     
23. http://www.envsci-ed.brockport.edu/  SUNY-Brockport: Welcome to Environmental Science Education: Pedagogy, Curricula and Funding, accessed December 8, 2003.
     
24. http://www.hcs.k12.sc.us/instruction/Playcard/  Horry County School District: Playcard, accessed December 8, 2003.
     
25. http://www.projectwild.org/  Project WILD: From Awareness to Responsible Action, 2000^©.

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