Creagh W. Breuner, Ph.D. - US grants

This IGERT award establishes the Montana Ecology of Infectious Disease (M-EID) program at the University of Montana. The program focus on ecology of infectious diseases addresses the need to train leaders in an emerging field of global and local importance with considerable scientific, societal, ethical and policy aspects. M-EID has three major components: 1) interdisciplinary, team-based training in mathematics, computation, and biology; 2) specific training in establishing collaboration, team-building, and effective communication among disciplines and to other societal sectors; 3) professional development and career enhancement. M-EID faculty are from mathematical, computational, ecosystem, and biological sciences. The main research focus areas encompass different temporal and spatial scales and different levels of biological organization, providing fertile ground for innovation in mathematics and computer science at the interface of biology. Through an interwoven curriculum and guided application and experimentation, M-EID trainees will develop expertise in a primary discipline that will be applied to an interdisciplinary research problem. Trainees will have explicit training in team building, communication across the sciences, and effective teaching. M-EID has relationships with individuals, institutions, and agencies in the U.S. and abroad providing Fellows with additional venues to develop academic excellence and career opportunities. M-EID focuses on recruitment of Native Americans and other underrepresented groups through ties with tribal colleges and undergraduate summer institutes serving minorities and women. This program will serve as a model for small- to mid-sized institutions in effective interdisciplinary graduate education emphasizing both academic excellence and effective collaborative and communication skills. IGERT is an NSF-wide program intended to meet the challenges of educating U.S. Ph.D. scientists and engineers with the interdisciplinary background, deep knowledge in a chosen discipline, and the technical, professional, and personal skills needed for the career demands of the future. The program is intended to catalyze a cultural change in graduate education by establishing innovative new models for graduate education and training in a fertile environment for collaborative research that transcends traditional disciplinary boundaries.

The glucocorticoid hormone-driven stress response is a potent modulator of physiology and behavior across the animal kingdom. This stress response is regulated at many levels, demonstrating specificity to the stressor, the environmental context, and the physiological condition of the organism. How can an organism facilitate such fine control over what was historically presumed to be a generalized response to any noxious stressor? Over the last decade binding proteins have emerged as one of the central integrators of the endocrine regulatory axis. Corticosteroid binding globulin (CBG) is a significant regulator of the stress response, altering the potency and tissue specificity of corticosteroid action depending on environmental and physiological conditions. Nevertheless, the mechanism by which CBG alters physiological function is under dispute. This research will investigate the role of CBG in mediating the stress response in white-crowned sparrows by incorporating studies from the cellular to the ecological level. The availability of CBG in plasma, tissues, and whole birds will be altered and the physiological and behavioral responses to exogenous corticosterone will be monitored. Such an approach will evaluate the relative importance of tissue versus plasma CBG in orchestrating the organismal response to stress. This research will be extended to ecologically relevant organismal studies to determine how CBG is involved in mediating the stress response in wild populations of birds. This project incorporates undergraduate internships with integration of research and teaching as their main focus. These undergraduate biology and science education majors will be trained in field research techniques and ideas, while learning how to develop lesson plans for high school students. In mid-May, the students will travel with the PI to Lee Vining, California for the 6-week field season. During that time they will complete the field research outlined in the grant, while also giving their prepared lessons at the local high school one day each week. The entire internship will culminate with presentation of the field-collected data at the University of Montana Conference on Undergraduate Research. These experiences strengthen the education majors' knowledge of the scientific process, and forge an understanding and commitment to developing authentic research experiences for students in their future science classrooms. For the biology undergraduates, these experiences will foster positive experiences with educational settings and encourage future relationships with secondary science classrooms. This program will promote active participation in both the scientific process and learning the nature of science; it will improve the interns' potential as future teachers of science.

PI Breuner
Proposal # IOS 0808479
Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transition to Independence- Exploring the
Extreme Life History of Albatrosses

In species with parental care, transition to independence is the first true test of individual fitness. In many birds, leaving the nest (1) ends parental care, (2) requires an abrupt transition from immobility to sustained flight, and (3) requires learning to forage. In light of these requirements, it is not surprising that age and condition at departure can influence future survival and reproductive success. What proximate triggers do fledglings use to time this important life-history transition? Past studies have focused either on morphological, energetic, or endocrine correlates of fledging. This proposal addresses proximate triggers of fledging, integrating measures of morphology, energetic reserves, and endocrine physiology in a long-lived seabird, the Laysan Albatross. Further, hormone levels and food availability will be manipulated to experimentally address interactions between energetics, body mass, food delivery, and glucocorticoid hormones. The combination of strategies will allow for experimental evaluation of fledging behavior within a physiological framework. Broader impacts include strong conservation biology implications. Laysan Albatross have been identified as one of a number of indicator species for the seabird colonies of the NWHI and are a major consumer of marine resources, so their reproductive success is reflective of the health and status of the oceans. Knowledge of the mechanisms and effects of physiological changes during fledging will aid in both understanding the mechanisms of behavior and the informed management of long-lived oceanic seabirds.

Through the Learning Assistants Become Teachers (LABT) project, the University of Montana (UM) in partnership with the Missoula County Public Schools is recruiting thirty individuals to complete baccalaureate degrees in mathematics, chemistry, biology, geosciences, environmental science, computer science, or physics and providing them up to three years of scholarship support to complete their STEM degree and earn secondary teacher licensure.

The LABT project is designed to transform the culture of mathematics and science teacher preparation on the UM campus through the recruitment of STEM undergraduates to become assistants in large section mathematics and science courses. The students work in pairs, and with faculty and graduate assistants, to engage other undergraduates as peer tutors and this provides them with experiences as facilitators of learning in anticipation of becoming teachers in middle and high school classrooms. Additionally, the Learning Assistant model is being extended into elementary and secondary schools where the Noyce Scholars assist master teachers in high-need school districts. Noyce Scholars are being prepared to work in western Montana communities, which are rural and represent a diversity of cultures, including different Native American tribes.

The goals of the LABT project are to:
1. design a recruitment and Noyce Scholarship award strategy that increases the number of middle/high school mathematics and science teachers entering the profession prepared to teach effectively in rural and frontier areas;
2. improve the quality of education for Noyce scholars by instituting a summer field science workshop and an academic year pedagogy seminar;
3. improve the quality of education for both Noyce scholars and undergraduate students in targeted mathematics and science courses by using Noyce scholars as Learning Assistants (peer mentors using supportive teaching strategies); and
4. establish a culture at UM that engages faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates in the learning of mathematics and science content through research-based teaching.

The LABT is characterized by freshmen and sophomore summer internships, modifications to courses in which Learning Assistants work, pedagogy seminars, mentoring by master teachers, and online wiki and Moodle mentoring of Noyce Scholars as they transition into the early years of their teaching careers. Freshmen and sophomore summer internships in ecological field placements serve as a first exposure to teaching, while serving as one recruitment mechanism for Noyce Scholars. Semester-long pedagogy seminars for all Learning Assistants, graduate teaching assistants, and faculty interested in the model or teaching within the targeted courses will be provided. STEM courses in which Learning Assistants are used are being customized to include greater use of small-group work and questioning techniques that encourage mathematical and scientific discourse, including challenging assumptions, revealing contradictions and constructing new understandings. Participating faculty recruit Learning Assistants from the best and brightest former students so that subsequent course offerings become transformed through the use of these Noyce Scholars.

Increasing the number, quality, and diversity of mathematics and science teachers with majors in STEM disciplines ensures a depth of content knowledge which, when linked to the skill set developed as Learning Assistants, provides novice teachers with a solid foundation for success in the teaching profession. As the LABT project focuses specifically on preparing future mathematics and science teachers for success in rural/frontier areas of the west, and high-need reservation areas, persistent patterns in which these areas are educationally underserved are being thwarted.