Programs and Facilities Update
Revolutionizing Scientific Education and Discovery in Wyoming The University of Wyoming’s Science Initiative will enable world-class research and education that will strengthen the foundations of Wyoming’s present and future economy. Through integrated, interdisciplinary science, Wyoming’s current and future researchers and entrepreneurs will revolutionize areas of Wyoming’s economy including mineral extraction, agriculture, tourism, resource management, and emerging technology, while also preserving Wyoming’s greatest natural resources and unique biodiversity. The Science Initiative will provide UW students with a flexible, pioneering skill set, giving them the resources to invent a Wyoming future whose details cannot be fully known. The Science Initiative’s programs and facilities will attract and retain Wyoming’s best and brightest students and the nation’s finest faculty. Combined with UW’s Tier-1 Engineering Initiative and the Trustees Education Initiative, the Science Initiative will propel UW into national prominence as a center for economically driven, interdisciplinary, research-based education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, promoting statewide growth in areas of established and emergent strength.
Pillars of the Science Initiative Advance Discovery Elevate UW core science programs to national prominence with facilities and programming that will attract and retain national-level grant funding and high-quality undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty. High-performing people, programming, and facilities will push UW to the frontiers of science and enable UW to tackle important interdisciplinary problems. Improve Student Learning Comprehensively transform UW science education by training college educators in innovative active learning techniques and providing students with transformative research experiences in top-tier laboratories. Create Economic Vitality Strengthen and diversify Wyoming’s economy by providing a highly trained, creative workforce in frontier interdisciplinary sciences and technologies; advance competitive scientific research that will directly support economic development through creation of new companies and support to Wyoming industries.
SIGNATURE PROGRAMS AND FACILITIES OF THE SCIENCE INITIATIVE Learning Actively Mentoring Program • Wyoming Research Scholars Program • Science Initiative Roadshow • Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences • Faculty Innovation Grant Program • PhD Scholars Program • Student Collaborative Research, Outreach, & Learning Laboratory • Center for Advanced Scientific Instrumentation • Center for Integrative Biological Research
Thank you to our sponsors The generous support of Union Wireless and Rocky Mountain Power enables us to provide quality STE(A)M education to Wyoming students and citizens throughout the state.
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Learning Actively Mentoring Program (LAMP) uwyo.edu/lamp LAMP is a comprehensive, sustained mentoring and professional development program with an emphasis on how to best adopt active learning strategies in large-scale active learning classrooms at UW and in classrooms across the state’s community colleges. The LAMP Fellows Program is an immersive, year-long educational development opportunity designed to facilitate instructors’ incorporation of active learning techniques into the STEM courses they teach at UW and at community colleges across the state. The LAMP Learning Assistant Program provides undergraduate and teaching certificate students with opportunities to assist teaching in large introductory science courses at UW taught in active learning classrooms.
Since 2016, 105 LAMP-trained educators at UW have impacted 23,472 students in 539 active learning courses
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Active Learning Classroom A 200-seat active learning classroom will be the centerpiece of the second floor of the Science Initiative building. The classroom will foster student engagement through active learning across a wide variety of classes, most notably large introductory STEM courses. It is designed to enable small group collaboration and problem solving among students. A state-of-the-art sound system will enable students to work in small groups without being distracted by neighboring groups and allow instructors to speak with hundreds of students without straining. For demonstration phases of active learning, professors will have the opportunity to do advanced bench-top science demos in a small room contiguous to the main classroom. A video feed will allow each student to see every detail of the demonstration. Lastly, the proximity of the classroom to high-end research facilities will enable research-enriched active learning.
“This has been one of [the] most important parts of my college career. Not only has it developed me into a better educator, it has developed me into a better student, effective communicator, and leader. I absolutely have loved this experience and would recommend it to all of those who want to pursue teaching and being a life-long learner.” – Learning Assistant
“Discovering the LAMP community has reminded me of the inspiring human network found at [the] University of Wyoming... This workshop has gone way beyond knowledge transfer, it has made me aware of my own core values as well as privileges, humbled me by exposing me to amazing things my peers, mentors and program founders value and have accomplished, and in general made me more confident about my choice to become a teacher/instructor.” – LAMP Fellow
Wyoming Research Scholars Program (WRSP) uwyo.edu/wrsp WRSP pairs undergraduate students with faculty mentors to participate in their own cutting-edge research project starting as early as their freshman year. Research experiences through WRSP build confidence and competence in young scholars at a formative stage in their training.
3. P air talented students with a faculty mentor who can model the scholarship, teaching, service, and outreach activities of a professional scientist. 4. Develop transferable professional skills such as science writing, data analysis, and oral communication through participation in research and public outreach events.
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Teton: 4
Sheridan: 7 Bighorn: 3 Johnson: 2 Washakie: 2 Fremont: 4
Lincoln: 1
Sweetwater: 4
Crook: 1 Weston: 1
Natrona: Converse: 5 3
Carbon: 2
Goshen: 1
2. R etain promising students in the sciences at UW through early involvement in hands-on science research, department seminars, and public outreach events.
Park: 6
Platte: 1
1. Attract high-achieving high school graduates and community college transfer students to UW.
Where are the research scholars from? Campbell: 4
PROGRAM GOALS
Albany: Laramie: 21 19
WRSP has provided 91 undergraduate students from 19 Wyoming counties with transformative research experiences
WRSP Alumni Scholar Profiles “WRSP opened so many doors for me as an undergrad. I was able to take part in research throughout the academic year, as well as being given opportunities for summer internships. I recently finished my MS in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and am now working as an environmental consultant focused on environmental modeling. I have no doubt that attending my master’s program would not have been a possibility if WRSP had not helped me develop an understanding of scientific research... It has also been clear during my graduate degree and beyond that the experiences I had as a Wyoming Research Scholar were not opportunities that my peers beyond the University of Wyoming had access to.” – Logan Eicholzer (WRSP scholar 2016-2017)
“I started working with Dr. Kevin Monteith when I was an undergraduate through WRSP. I then went on to conduct a master’s degree under his direction. I was first author or co-author on multiple publications through this degree, and used skills that I developed during my time as a WRSP participant … to help me reach these milestones. I now work for Dr. Monteith as a research scientist and outreach coordinator in the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources.... I’ve built a very fitting and wonderful career, and I was able to do it in part because of the relationships that I developed during WRSP!” – Rhiannon Jakopak (WRSP scholar 2015-2016)
Teams of undergraduate and graduate students from UW, including WRSP Scholars and LAMP Learning Assistants, facilitate in-person and virtual learning in K-12 STEM classrooms across the state using active learning techniques through the Science Initiative Roadshow. The teams from UW work with K-12 teachers to integrate learning experiences into existing curricula in order to achieve assigned learning outcomes. This collaborative approach exposes Wyoming students and teachers to innovative active learning techniques and creates links between UW and schools across the state to improve STEM teaching statewide.
The Science Initiative Roadshow has provided active learning experiences for 4,928 K-12 students in 14 Wyoming counties
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Park: 45
Sheridan: 547
Teton: 117 Fremont: 868 Sublette: 4 Sweetwater: 1,428
Campbell: 260
Science Initiative Roadshow Crook: 50 Weston: 125
Natrona: Converse: 126 275
Carbon: 65 Albany: Laramie: 107 911
Wyoming counties and number of K-12 students served, 2018-2021
Recent Roadshow Highlights Students in Rachel Watson’s microbiology capstone course partnered with Wyoming Public Health labs to use computational epidemiological approaches to investigate factors affecting both the disproportionate impacts and underreporting of COVID-19 in Wyoming. Using systems-based, transdisciplinary, team science approaches, students developed Shiny apps visually communicating important findings that are helping guide statewide responses to the pandemic. These students developed outreach curriculum that has been implemented at Laramie High and Riverton Junior High and was shared with underrepresented students at Jackson’s Teton Literacy Center in collaboration with Perfectus Biomedical Labs. Over the course of a full week, 17 Teton Literacy students performed a full research study; they made hypotheses, cultured environmental samples and body samples, worked in the Perfectus Biomed labs and finally, made data visualizations to communicate their findings.
Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) will allow hundreds of UW undergraduates to participate in handson research through their classes. Individual research fellowships are competitive and limited in number, but CUREs enable students of all experience levels to engage in research as a part of their degree requirements. Each CURE is taught as a multi-course, sequential series, designed to enable problem-based active learning through research. Student research occurs in the laboratory (SCROLL will help facilitate this), field, and community and incorporates both facilitated and independent projects, with instructors and subject matter experts coaching student researchers.
Research Programs and Facilities
The Faculty Innovation Grant Program has supported research experiences for 27 UW students
Faculty Innovation Grant Program
In March of 2019, the Science Initiative launched a pilot version of the Faculty Innovation Grant Program, designed to stimulate and bolster submission of significant interdisciplinary competitive grant proposals to federal agencies. Science Initiative Faculty Innovation grants have seeded $512,820 in grants from outside agencies as of late 2021. The SI expects 10+ more grant proposals to be submitted through 2022, as well. When fully funded, the program will award $600,000 annually.
Research Programs and Facilities PhD Scholars Program The PhD Scholars Program will train the next generation of scientists by providing access to the newest and most advanced scientific facilities in the region with mentorship by some of the top faculty scientists in the world. The PhD Scholars Program will do the following: 1. Attract high-quality graduate students to the University of Wyoming. 2. Increase the number and quality of PhD students graduating from UW to bring Science Initiative academic programs to top-quartile status. 3. Train the next generation of leading scientists with skills: 1) to address challenging and relevant interdisciplinary problems, 2) to pursue successful careers in business and industry, governmental, and non-governmental organizations, and academia, and 3) to conduct effective outreach to citizens of the state and nation. 4. S timulate an increase in successful research grant proposals from interdisciplinary researchers. 5. Provide hands-on mentorship for WRSP scholars. 6. Reduce average time-to-degree for a UW PhD. The PhD Scholars Program will continually provide funding for 20 prestigious PhD awards within the five core Science Initiative departments. Each PhD student will undergo training and demonstrate competency in outreach and will perform one semester of active learning classroom teaching (through LAMP) and/or undergraduate research mentorship (through WRSP), in addition to performing doctoral research.
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Research Programs and Facilities Student Collaborative Research, Outreach, & Learning Laboratory (SCROLL) SCROLL, located in the south wing of the fourth floor of the new Science Initiative building, will be the first space of its kind—not only on our campus but on campuses throughout the Rocky Mountain region. This space will serve as a center for research, teaching, learning, collaboration, and in-reach for undergraduate and graduate UW students as well as K-12 students from across the state. SCROLL will be a powerful tool for recruiting promising new students to UW as well as retaining STEM students throughout their college career. SCROLL will include: 1. I nterdisciplinary laboratory space and computational hubs that can be used by undergraduate students to conduct individual and course-based research. SCROLL will include a wet laboratory with spaces for 48 student researchers, a DNA preparation room, cold storage, an autoclave for sterilizing laboratory equipment, and a computational laboratory space
for computer science research, modeling, and data analysis applications. SCROLL will not only enhance education for WRSP students, but provide a state-of-the-art space for hundreds of undergraduates each semester in Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs). The Science Initiative Roadshow will also use the space to prepare for lab-based outreach events and to host in-reach visits for K-12 students. 2. A 30-seat active learning classroom (ALC) that will serve as a training space to model active learning techniques for LAMP Fellows and LAMP Learning Assistants. The ALC will also provide space for graduate and undergraduate students designing curriculum for outreach and in-reach events. The LAMP Educator Learning Community (ELC) will meet here as they work to design and develop their scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) presentations and publications. Just like the laboratory space, this smaller ALC can be used for K-12 science education as part of the Science Initiative Roadshow. 3. A collision space where students can study, schedule meetings, and interact with peers across disciplines, fostering the creation of new ideas and enhancing student life and learning outcomes. 4. Four administrative offices for directors of SI student programs.
Administrative Offices
The Science Initiative also supports and collaborates with multiple graduate student coalitions for research and outreach. All the spaces within SCROLL would support these students by giving them a place to meet for planning, training in outreach and teaching techniques, and spaces for their in-reach programming.
Laboratory Space
Collision Space
Small ALC
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Research Programs and Facilities Center for Advanced Scientific Instrumentation (CASI) 1. L ocated in the Science Initiative building, CASI will bring together UW’s elite imaging scientists, their student teams, and unique instrumentation in a state-of-the-art staffed laboratory, allowing researchers to achieve unprecedented sensitivities and efficiencies in probing the fundamental interactions among atoms, molecules, and cells that underlie all next-generation technologies. 2. CASI’s research capabilities and training opportunities will attract high-achieving students from across the globe. Expert imaging staff will train these student researchers in cutting-edge microscopy techniques, giving them the skills to succeed in their future careers. 3. CASI’s instrumentation will allow researchers to design, control, and exploit nanoscale materials and devices, giving researchers the tools to advance critical technologies related to fossil fuel conversion/upgrade, fuel cell design, and photovoltaics (solar energy). Instrumentation for biological imaging will also provide cuttingedge capabilities to researchers across several departments at UW involved in biological and health-related research. 4. C ASI will employ a sustainable operational model and will be a locus for private and corporate investment in imaging science, enabling collaborations with researchers from other institutions and attracting outside contract-based users.
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Research Programs and Facilities Center for Integrative Biological Research (CIBR) 1. S pread across all floors of the SI Building, CIBR will bring together UW’s worldrecognized biologists within shared laboratories and collaborative spaces to foster innovation and convergent research activities addressing some of Wyoming’s most pressing environmental and health-related challenges. CIBR will support scientific explorations that range spatial scales from molecules, to cells, to organisms, to ecosystems and to earth systems and that span temporal scales from seconds to thousands of years. Lab and field experiments will be paralleled by cutting edge modeling that also spans this broad range of spatial and temporal scales to better understand current systems and model future states. 2. CIBR’s design is one with open laboratory and informal spaces which offer shared resources and natural collision spaces to support current crossscale collaborations and foster new and innovative research endeavors. The innovative design, in part, will help drive increased research success through external granting, publications, and research opportunities for students.
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3. CIBR will house world-class research support facilities to enable cutting edge research for CIBR faculty as well as all other STEM faculty from across campus. Rooftop greenhouses and walk-in growth chambers will provide highly controlled growth conditions, enabling research opportunities not yet realized at UW. The Model Organism Research Facility (MORF) will provide modern care and procedure facilities to support research aimed at understanding biological processes at the molecular and cell level to whole organisms.
Spatial and temporal scales studied by faculty in CIBR Earth System
Spatial scale
Ecosystem Organism Organ Molecule
Cell
Temporal scale
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Science Initiative Building Floor 1
CASI
INBRE
MORF
SI Main Office
ALC
Floor 4 Ecosystem and Earth Science Research Labs
SCROLL
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Floor 2
Floor 3 Cell and Molecular Research Labs
Organismal Research Labs
CASI
Floor 5 Mechanical Greenhouses and Growth Chamber
Science Initiative Building 1000 E. University Ave. Laramie, WY 82071
uwyo.edu/science-initiative
307-766-4415
University of Wyoming Science Initiative
SI@uwyo.edu