Shelbie Harris
Staff Writer
Throughout a student’s collegiate career it’s important to find a healthy balance between obtaining classroom knowledge and applying that information with a hands-on approach.
Idaho’s Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR) offers a program available to undergraduate students that not only offers them this opportunity but also pays students to participate.
The MILES Undergraduate Research and Internships (MURI) Program was developed to engage undergraduates in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields using a hands-on approach and providing up to $4,000 per student.
“The MURI Program is like the CPI program in a sense that we pay students to do work. In this case [that work is] research with faculty members and grad students,” said David Rodgers, associate dean for the College of Science and Engineering. “It has to be on a specific ecosystem services topic.”
These particular students are paid for summer and academic year research experiences within a wide range of topics broadly related to the Management of Idaho’s Landscapes for Ecosystem Services (MILES).
“Ecosystem Services are anything that happens in our ecological environment that affects society or society uses,” said Rodgers. “For instance, water that we use to drink is an ecosystem service, bumblebees and pollination are an ecosystem service.”
If a student applies for the MURI program and is accepted, they are partnered with a faculty member from one of the three Idaho universities, any two-year community college or stakeholder with the MILES project.
The faculty member or stakeholder then explains the research project they are working on to the student and a research plan is developed between the two, or in some cases multiple individuals.
Recently, Cole Morrison, a senior biology student at ISU participated in this program, focusing on the dropout statistics of bumblebees and native pollinators around different environments in our region.
The main focus of his study was to determine if there was a dropout of different types as well as amounts of pollinators, bumblebees in particular, throughout this region.
A typical day for Morrison would involve choosing a location to focus on, either inner-city, at a local park or somewhere outside of city limits such as near the Gibson Jack area.
Morrison would then track both the diversity and population of active pollinators in the area compiling statistics for data comparison.
Because of human interference, both with new construction as well as the removal of native plants, there has been a decline in the amounts of native pollinators.
“Native plants and pollinators evolve together,” said Morrison.
A research opportunity of this stature is beneficial not only for the faculty member or stakeholder but also to the student participant.
“You get to see what it’s like to actually participate in such a big research event,” said Morrison. “It’s definitely an eye opener.”
Any student can apply for the MURI program, however students interested in the STEM fields are highly encouraged to participate as it not only presents students the opportunity for paid scientific research but it also benefits society as the research being conducted will later be studied and implemented in other research.
