KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Tue, 5/23/2023, 11:00am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Shawna Brandle (KCC HIS Faculty), Dmitry Brogun (KCC BIO faculty), Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty), Kathy Giaimo (KCC Institutional Advancement), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC Library), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty), Mike Rosson (KCC Library)

The meeting began at 11:00am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming.
2. Mary shared there have been some issues with the research project her Biostatistics class is doing. One student dropped the class, two students have stopped coming.  Half the class lost a week of data due to the recent water main break at KCC.  Instead of each student having 8 weeks of data, they have 7, 8 or 9 weeks of data.  Discussion took place on what to do with the data (how many weeks to include, which weeks, etc.).  Suggestions included: charting when the students collected their data to see if they did it on the same days/times, using 7 weeks and letting the students who have 8 or 9 weeks of data to submit their analysis for extra credit, in the future using a Google doc to have the students submit their data each week, letting the students discuss and decide what to do.  Mary will share the report with this FIG group she and her class submit to the KCC Sustainability Committee.  Shawna shared the report could be put into CUNY Academic Works, and explained how the Works works.  She also shared the website:  https://academicworks.cuny.edu/
3. Christina gave an update on the climate monitoring station that will hopefully be placed at the KCC dock by Rich Rivera, a former KCC student and current doctoral student at the CUNY Grad Center in conjunction with his research for his degree. Ed Rios, NOAA and the KCC Maritime Program are working on this with Rich.
4. Christina shared she is planning two horseshoe crab tagging dates at Plumb Beach, Wed 5/31/2023 and Wed 6/7/2023, both 1-3pm. All are welcome to come and participate. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is working on tagging, too. Mary will mention this to her BIO3300 class if they would like to earn extra credit.
5. Shawna asked if we knew of anyone at KCC who could help her find support for undergraduate research. We suggested she speak with Mable Chee.
6. Christina discussed doing remote research. She gives students data chips with data to work with. She doesn’t see the students much.  Lilja mentioned a similar problem.  There are lost samples doing online sequences, and students having a lack of lab skills.  Mike suggested using Microsoft Teams and simulations.  Mary suggested speaking with Grace or Marie McGovern regarding writing quality simulations.  Christina uses SimBio.  SimBio gives instant feedback, makes it difficult to be dishonest, and runs experiments.  There is a fee ($25), and the students pay the fee.  It gives the students experience with data, developing a hypothesis, etc.  Lilja mentioned there could be a problem with the fee in a multiple section course such as BIO1100.  Christina the following website:  https://www.biointeractive.org/
7. Shawna shared that her department is in the final stages of hiring an Environmental Politics Assistant Professor. She will have more to share in Fall 2023.
8. Mary will send out the End of Semester Survey and the minutes from this meeting.
9. The next meeting of our FIG will be in Fall 2023. Mary will send out a Doodle poll in the Fall.
10. Mary thanked everyone for their participation in this FIG this semester.

Meeting adjourned at 11:35am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

 

KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Tue, 4/25/2023, 11:00am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Shawna Brandle (KCC HIS Faculty), Dmitry Brogun (KCC BIO faculty), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC Library), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty), Mike Rosson (KCC Library),

The meeting began at 11:00am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming.
2. Mary mentioned that Nancy Hensel’s book on Undergraduate Research in Community Colleges has been sent to each person in the group via inter-office mail. Let Mary know if you did not receive your copy.
3. Mary mentioned that she has not heard from any of the high school College Now Science teachers regarding the science seminar for KCC and high school students to showcase their work. She will attempt to contact them again.
4. Dmitry shared there will be student CRSP presentations on Fri 4/28/2023, 9:30-4pm, if anyone is interested in attending.
5. Marina (Ouedraogo) could not make the meeting, but asked if there is anything she could assist with in sharing with the advisement of students. We discussed sharing the following with her – CSTEP, CRSP, Bridges – the name and email of the person in charge, and the address of the webpage on the KCC website for each for her to distribute to students.  Mary will get that list to her and the group.  (See bottom of these minutes)
6. Christina Colon could not make the meeting, but she emailed Mary asking her to get opinions on whether a field station at Floyd Bennett Field would be considered an asset for undergraduate research for KCC students. Christina went on to say that there may be monitoring/research opportunities for our students on environmental impacts of wind farms offshore and workforce opportunities.  Maybe the RV CUNY 1 could ferry students to/from Floyd Bennett Field.  There was discussion.  Dmitry shared that he is on the Committee for the Jamaica Bay Institute. He explained that CUNY got money, but it will take a few years for things to happen.  Lawmakers were lobbied.  This can benefit KCC.  We have to see what the Institute has to offer KCC, and what the timeline is for the future.  CUNY has several buildings at Floyd Bennett Field.  We have resources here at KCC.  Everything is very preliminary now.  We will get updates.  Discussion followed.
7. KCC has a boat (KCC 1) that Christina and Kristin Polizzotto were involved with. Dimitry wants to do sampling.  The boat is hybrid or electric.  We can get an update on the boat.
8. Shawna shared her department is beginning to interview for an Environmental Politics Assistant Professor. She looks forward to introducing that person to our FIG group.  This will be a Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics (STEP) person.  Maybe interdisciplinary research can be done (Environment, Climate, Wind).  She mentioned the wind project.  They will be looking to Bio.
9. Mary gave an update on the research project her Biostatistics class is doing monitoring the various garbage pails at specific locations at KCC. The students are in week 5/6 collecting their data.  Some hurdles include not enough people passing by, and people throwing out items in the wrong pail.  However, the students are not discouraged and are moving forward with their work.
10. Grace gave an update on the barcoding project she is pursuing. She and Dmitry discussed meta bar coding.
11. Grace is also continuing to work on soil analysis and Winogradsky columns. She is pursuing a collaboration with the KCC Urban Farm on this.
12. Mary will send out the minutes from this meeting.
13. The next meeting of our FIG will be on Tue 5/23/2023 at 11am via Zoom. Mary will send out the Zoom info.

Meeting adjourned at 11:40am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz

List of Research Opportunities for Marina to Share with Students

CSTEP = Collegiate Science &Technology Entry Program

Faculty contact = Prof. Craig Hinkley, S229, 718-368- 5783, Craig.Hinkley@kbcc.cuny.edu

Link to webpage on KCC website:  https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/academicdepartments/bio/c_step/

CSTEP Office = S218 , 718-368-5503

Bridges to the Baccalaureate Program

Faculty contact = Prof. Anna Rozenboym, S132,718-368-6703, Anna.Rozenboym@kbcc.cuny.edu

Link to webpage on KCC website: https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/academicdepartments/bio/bridges/index.html

CRSP = CUNY Research Scholars  Program

Faculty contact = Prof. Farshad Tamari, S117, Farshad.Tamara@kbcc.cuny.edu

Link to web page on KCC website:  https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/CRSP/

LSAMP = Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation

Faculty contact = Not listed

Link to web page on KCC website:  https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/academic/programs/amp/amp_mission.html

KCC FIG – Undergraduate Research as a High Impact Practice

Minutes of the Meeting of Tue, 4/4/2023, 11:00am via Zoom

Mary Theresa Ortiz – Facilitator

 

Present:  Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO Faculty), Dmitry Brogun (KCC BIO faculty), Christina Colon (KCC BIO Faculty), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC Library), Lilja Nielsen (KCC BIO Faculty), Mary Theresa Ortiz (KCC BIO Faculty), Marina Ouedraogo (KCC BUS/Advisement),  Mike Rosson (KCC Library),

The meeting began at 11:00am.

1. Mary welcomed everyone, thanked them for coming, and we introduced ourselves to the group.
2. Mary shared that Nancy Hensel’s book on Undergraduate Research in Community Colleges will be sent to each person in the group via inter-office mail.
3. Mike shared integrating the Library with different departments and working with faculty to help with their research and literature reviews. Resources have been developed for easy retrieval.  He wants to get Science Direct for the Library for use.
4. Carrie shared they are available to help with literature searches, meetings, strategies, annotations, etc.
5. Christina shared in Ecology the students study predation. They found baleen on the beach.  She said that AI fails if the question isn’t worded properly.  She also discussed phrenology work with the trees on the KCC campus.
6. Lilja shared that CSTEP has been studying oysters for 11 years, and they are seeing in genetic sequences where different populations are along the East Coast of the US. Even though the students study sequence data and get a “snapshot” view, all of the “snap shots” put together provide interesting results.  Lilja and Craig impress upon the students that their “snap shots” are important to the project.
7. We discussed students as co-authors. Lilja shared acknowledging students rather than giving them authorship for several reasons, such as students who have moved on and are no longer able to be reached, the amount of work a student actually did on the project, etc. Christina shared she goes back to posters for authorship.
8. Mike spoke of his daughter’s high school and college and suggested we have a STEM Video Conference Showcase online (via Zoom) with both high school and KCC students presenting their work. Mary will approach College Now and the College Now Science Faculty at the high schools to see if they would be interested in doing this and when.  Lilja was a judge for Brooklyn College Science Scholars Day.  We may want to contact Jenny Basil about our idea.
9. Grace is working with the KCC Urban Farm to get soil samples for the BIO50 – General Microbiology class to set up Winogradsky columns to study microbial ecology. She has the students compare layers in the columns with soil from the KCC Urban Farm vs. sand from Great Kills Beach, Staten Island.  In the last few years, the column layers have been unremarkable.  For the future she plans columns with cultivated vs. uncultivated soil.  She also shared the KCC Urban Farm plans to do aquaponics.
10. Grace and Christina discussed the DNA Bar Coding session they attended in the winter.
11. Grace discussed working with the Culinary Program on pizza dough microorganisms.
12. Dmitry discussed his research. He got a grant for Bar Coding.  Students will present at the CUNY Symposium.  Students compared compost vs. uncomposted soil and looked at biomarkers.
13. Grace and Dmitry discussed collaborating using Bar Coding.
14. Christina discussed outreach she does for CSTEP, the Rockaway Beach Alliance, bringing students to high schools, outreach to the KCC Summer Camp, Plumb Beach, Middle School students, her work with horseshoe crabs and Cornell, and field trips with her Ecology class (including families).
15. Lilja suggested it would be nice to have a list of research opportunities. We will work on this.
16. Mary will send out the minutes from this meeting and the Pre-Semester Survey again.
17. The next meeting of our FIG will be set up via a Doodle Mary will send out and its results.

Meeting adjourned at 11:52am.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Mary Theresa Ortiz