Citizen Diplomacy Action Fund Proposal 

Description of the project

Project Goals and Objectives are to continue impacting disadvantaged K-14 students with research experiences in STEM-C fields in Puerto Rico and abroad (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Moscow, Russia).  The Saturday Research Academy (SRA) is a Model Institutions for Excellence (MIE), National Science Foundation (NSF) best practice.  The team leader of this proposal initiated the SRA in 1998 at Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Over 4,000 K-12 disadvantaged students were impacted with a 16-week research training program. Over 95% of the impacted students were transferred to college and universities in Puerto Rico and the U.S. mainland. Over 85 % selected careers in STE-C fields. The challenges posed by the coronavirus pandemic will not affect the implementation of the Virtual Saturday Research Academy of this proposal because of the technology planned to use and the experience of implementing the Virtual Saturday Research Academy during the Fall 2019 and Spring 2020 semester by the team leader in Puerto Rico.  Participants and mentors met virtually during Saturdays and guided the students in their STEM-C research projects.  All the participants finished their projects, presented at the Virtual Pre-College Research Symposia, and were evaluated online by scientists who judged them accordingly.  The direct benefits for the new sites in the Dominican Republic and Russia will be the experience of implementing an MIE-NSF best practice in a foreign setting.  The Fulbright foreign mentors will gain a positive experience and set the bases for future implementation of the SRA in their countries.  The SRA is an early research experience program for K-14 students interested in STEM-C fields.  If this proposal is funded, we will impact 30 K-14 economically disadvantaged students from communities in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, and Moscow, Russia. The outcomes of the project will be (1) Student interaction with Fulbright foreign scientific mentors, (2) Research experience in STEM-C fields for 30 K-14, economically disadvantaged students, (3) Design of 30 competitive research posters by K-14 students, (4) Dissemination of research projects by participants in schools and conferences in educational communities of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Moscow, Russia and (5) Documentation of the Virtual Saturday Research Academy for digital distribution on the Internet in the Scientific Caribbean Foundation webpage http://www.scfpuertorico.com.