This project is funded by L'Oreal For Women in Science Mentoring Grant
Estuaries are a place of both beauty and wonder. At the very core, they are where rivers meet the sea. This confluence provides important nutrients to the ocean to sustain marine life, and rest and relaxation to about 60% of the world’s population who live along the shores or vacation on the water. Estuaries are also a catchment for enormous amounts of carbon and nutrients draining off the land. An overabundance of these nutrients leads to eutrophication, where nutrients stimulate plant growth; beyond the natural condition. Over time, dead zones can form in the bottom waters of the estuary due to the degradation of the plant carbon and the consumption of oxygen by microbes. These dead zones can lead to fish kills, negatively impacting the estuarine environment. A secondary consequence of eutrophication is the release of methane gas from the sediments to the atmosphere. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and is naturally formed in the sediments by microbes. When the dead zones form, tiny methane bubbles may escape the sediments and be released to the atmosphere (1). Yet, our understanding of this process is in its infancy. Thus, I propose to quantify the methane flux from the Chesapeake Bay, a highly eutrophic estuary, by collecting sediment and water samples on a research cruise aboard the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) Research Vessel Rachel Carson.
Although the scientific goal of this proposal is to study methane dynamics in the Chesapeake Bay, the primary goal is to expose community college STEM students to the exciting field of marine science by having them participate on the cruise and giving them a hands-on, research experience. Studies have found that STEM students at community colleges are less likely to complete a 4-year STEM degree than STEM students who start at a 4-year college (2). But, exposure to STEM activities in the students’ first year can be transformative, increasing their chances of finishing a STEM degree by 59% (2). An added benefit of the community college demographic is that a greater percentage of women attend community colleges before moving on to 4-year programs (3). In order to keep these students in the STEM fields, we must expose and excite them within their first year of community college.
The Tiny Bubbles Mentoring Project will address this essential need with the hopes of changing the face of science. This program will leverage the science of methane biogeochemistry, which is an important, exciting, and visually appealing topic, while engaging students in a hands-on research experience. I will work with freshmen undergraduate students at the College of Southern Maryland in Ms. Lori Crocker's "Principles of Biology" class. Using a three-tiered approach, I will first give a lecture on methane biogeochemistry (including estuaries and eutrophication) in the Spring of 2018. This lecture will reach ~30 students, and possibly get them excited about remaining in STEM fields. However, it may not fully inspire some students. Therefore, the second activity will be to bring 10 of the same students on the Tiny Bubbles Research cruise in May 2018, allowing them a hands-on experience to see what a marine scientist does. My goal is that this experience will truly engage the students in STEM. To determine if students need a full, more immersive research experience, one female student will then be chosen to conduct a summer internship in my lab. This student will analyze the samples collected on the Tiny Bubbles cruise and write up a report of their findings. With the “Tiny Bubbles Mentoring Project,” I hope to excite and motivate community college STEM students to maintain their STEM momentum and finish a 4-year STEM degree. They will be the true beneficiaries of this project.
1. Gelesh, Lapham et al., Limnology and Oceanography 61, S253 (2016).
2. Wang, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis 37, 376 (2015).
3. National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), Digest of Education Statistics, http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2012menu_tables.asp, U.S. Department of Education, (2012).