NSF Award Abstract - #0203404| NSF Award Abstract - #0203404 |
AWSFL008-DS3 |
| NSF Org | DBI |
| Latest Amendment Date | May 29, 2004 |
| Award Number | 0203404 |
| Award Instrument | Continuing grant |
| Program Manager |
Sally E. O'Connor DBI DIV OF BIOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE BIO DIRECT FOR BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES |
| Start Date | September 1, 2002 |
| Expires | August 31, 2006 (Estimated) |
| Expected Total Amount | $464000 (Estimated) |
| Investigator |
Raymond J. Pierotti pierotti@ku.edu (Principal Investigator current) Larry E. Erickson (Co-Principal Investigator current) |
| Sponsor |
U of Kansas Ctr for Res In 2385 Irving Hill Drive Lawrence, KS 660457563 785/864-3441 |
| NSF Program | 1135 UNGRAD MENTORING IN ENVIR BIOL |
| Field Application | 0312000 Population |
| Program Reference Code | 1135,1228,5973,9150,9169,9178,EGCH, |
0203404 PierottiThis project involves collaboration between three universities in Kansas and will train a number of Native American undergraduates in research techniques related to ecology and environmental science. Unlike many programs that offer only a brief research experience, this program will work with students over a 2-4 year period and mentor them through to graduation with a bachelor's degree. The PIs on this program have graduated more than 25 Native Americans over the last 7 years, and most of these graduates have gone on to attend graduate school.
This award includes a supplement from the Central and Eastern Europe Program of NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering to fund student and mentor travel to Siberia for research on indigenous knowledge as part of a collaboration with scientists and students at Gorno-Altaisk State University.
The significance of this program lies in recent discoveries that Indigenous communities represent stores of knowledge that both add to and compliment scientific knowledge obtained through the methods of the Western scientific tradition, e.g. indigenous knowledge 1) reveals connections between ecological communities that are studied separately and remain unlinked under Western scientific paradigms, and 2) give insight into the role of high quality individuals within population dynamics that are obscured by Western traditions of population level thinking. Students completing this program will be better prepared to conduct scientific research within the context of indigenous knowledge than any other group. Such approaches can simultaneously increase scientific awareness without losing sight of spiritual dimensions of human experience.
