The Wright State College of Math and Science has been awarded a $997,589 grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), which was announced on Mar. 8.
$630,000 of the NSF grant will fund 42 scholarships for second-year math and science majors who have demonstrated a financial need. For three years, 14 students will receive scholarships. The rest of the grant will be used to support programming and research activities of the Applying Scientific Knowledge (ASK) program, according to Physics Chair Jason Deibel.
In efforts to receive the grant, A National Proposal Team consisting of Deibel, ASK Director Meredith Rodgers, and Physics Professor Adrienne Traxler was involved.
The goals, according to Deibel, are “to provide undergraduate research experience, help students identify as scientists, retain retention rates, increase student GPAs and transform student experiences as science and math majors at Wright State,” said Deibel.
Through the ASK program, which was created and originally directed by Deibel, students may work on a research team of about 10 to 30 students with one or two faculty members. The traditional undergraduate research model required that students complete research on an individual basis with one faculty member.
“How can you get the undergraduate research experience to as many students as possible? A program like this expands that ability by doing it through team-based undergraduate research,” said Deibel in a release from the Wright State Newsroom.
The ASK program was introduced in 2016 and previously received a limited amount of funding through the Wright State University Foundation. Three separate applications had been sent to the NSF from a proposal team until they heard in November that Wright State was being considered for funding, according to Deibel, who co-wrote proposals to receive the grant.
In order to further improve the student researcher experience, the College of Science and Math will also be running a faculty-mentoring training program. The purpose is to adequately prepare faculty to mentor students in their research.
“Undergraduate research has always been a passion of mine,” said Deibel. “Essentially this grant has injected five more years into the ASK program – the hope of that is that we can have more success with [the program] and start gathering attention for external donor support.”
