Current Projects:

Jump to: AGEP ~ Pathways ~ NASA OSSI ~ Maine STEM ~ MS PHD'S ~ Math Alliance ~ VCCEMP ~ Whale-Lobster

»  AGEP: Pathways and Connections

This project supports AGEP alliances in institutional and faculty level networking as well as the recruitment and retention of students. The agep.us website provides a central repository for programmatic information, news, events, profiles, and contacts for AGEP alliances across the country.

»  Pathways to Science

This web portal highlights program and funding opportunities in STEM from K-12 through the graduate and post-doctoral level. The site provides a central repository for programs, funding opportunities, news, events, contacts, profiles, and best practices associated with STEM programs across the country. Students may use the site to search programs and funding opportunities, read student and faculty profiles, contact programs of interest, and add their name to our mailing list. Faculty may use the site to search contacts, identify complementary STEM programs and research efforts across the country, and publicize STEM news and events.

»  NASA One Stop Shop Initiative (OSSI)

IBP's "Building the STEM Workforce: Pathways for Recruitment, Retention, and Career Development" project supports NASA's OSSI initiative. Through this project, IBP leads a series of recruitment and retention efforts with a national network of colleges and universities along with three additional organizations with similar projects. The OSSI initiative involves streamlining the application and selection process for NASA funded educational opportunities such as scholarships, internships, and fellowships, with an overall goal of strengthening the STEM workforce and increasing the number of students successfully pursuing degrees and careers in the sciences.

Click here to view this project's regional specialists

»  Maine STEM

The Maine STEM website was developed in conjunction with the Maine STEM Collaborative. The Collaborative is a statewide initiative with two goals: 1) Ensuring that Maine students graduate with essential knowledge and skills in the STEM fields and 2) Encouraging Maine students to aspire to achieve higher degrees in the STEM fields. The Maine STEM web portal is a central repository of programs, news, events, profiles, and contacts in Maine. It also provides additional web presence for several ongoing state initiatives such as the Maine Girls Collaborative Project and the Forest Bioproducts Research Initiative.

»  MS PHD'S

The Minorities Striving and Pursuing Higher Degrees of Excellence in Earth Systems Science (MS PHD'S) is a national mentoring program in Earth Systems Sciences. Students are mentored by professional scientists, participate in professional society meetings and field trips, gain earth system science exposure, and benefit from networking and a virtual community.

»  National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematics

The National Alliance for Doctoral Studies in the Mathematical Sciences is an alliance between a group of proven mentors in math sciences departments at several Ph.D. and master's granting universities together with mentors at math science departments at colleges and universities which serve a substantial number of underrepresented undergraduate students. IBP provides technical support to the National Mathematics Alliance, including website development, digital application tools, and data management.

»  Virtual Classroom and Community Engagement Mentoring Project (VCCEMP)

VCCEMP provides underrepresented minority 4th-5th graders and their classroom teachers with increased exposure to earth system science. The project engages teachers in the use of digital curriculum resources such as DWEL, DLESE, and NSDL. It also uses virtual mentoring activities to pair 4th and 5th grade students with undergraduate and graduate MS PHD'S program participants.

» Analysis of Potential Interaction Whale-Lobster Gear Interaction

Endangered whales regularly visit the same Maine waters where thousands of lobster fishermen ply their trade. Concern about the potential for whales becoming entangled in lobster gear has led to new regulations that may disproportionately affect fishermen in certain areas or at certain times of the year. Current solutions to the problem are impeded by a lack of information at the spatial and temporal scales that are relevant to coastal lobster fishing.

In an effort to develop scientific data that could lead to better management approaches, IBP is part of a team of organizations led by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and funded by Maine and WHOI SeaGrant. This team is working to develop information about the temporal and spatial distribution of right whale entanglement risk in the waters off Maine, at a resolution and confidence level that can support sound proposals for risk reduction. Dr. Chris Brehme of IBP and Keene State College is collaborating on the fishing data collection effort with colleagues at the Maine Lobstermen's Association. He is digitizing information collected through pen and paper methods at small group meetings of fishermen along the coast. Paper nautical charts are scanned, imported to GIS where data on seafloor conditions is used to allocate effort percentages to specific regions of the coast.

Project collaborators at the New England Aquarium will collect and analyze historical spatial data on endangered whale sighting locations. The fine-scale fishing effort and whale data will become inputs to a risk-reduction model that will help identify those areas where entanglement risk might be higher under different configuration of gear or effort. The results should help inform improvements to the current management approach and help the researchers identify cost-effective methods for fishermen to achieve meaningful reductions in entanglement risk without adversely affecting their livelihood.

The project began with meetings of fishermen in Mount Desert Island, Maine in February. These meetings and the subsequent data analysis will continue through this year, with the whale-fishing gear modeling commencing in 2011.

Click here to read more about the project