A Traditional Enhancement award has enabled Southeastern Louisiana University to upgrade and modernize the vivarium facilities housing two captive colonies of red-ear slider turtles. The turtle colony, used by graduate and undergraduate students as well as faculty members, represents a major resource for Southeastern’s environmental programs and a strong recruitment tool for potential students in the biological sciences.
Funding from the Enhancement Program for Two-Year Institutions has helped Nunez Community College establish a center for child-care professionals and students in the Care and Development of Young Children and Teaching programs to gather, interact, and pursue professional development. The project included creation of a website, which has dramatically improved communication and awareness among students, faculty, teaching professionals, and the general public.
A Traditional Enhancement award at the University of Louisiana at Monroe has assisted in the establishment of a unified online virtual herbarium for the State. A consortial project involving all fifteen of Louisiana’s herbaria, this project supports the imaging and databasing of more than 1.1 million specimens. A National Science Foundation grant in 2009 created CyberFlora Louisiana to begin the imaging and cataloging work; the Enhancement award supplements and expands on this award, increasing the imaging capacity of ULM, which houses more than 30% of the specimens held statewide.
Bossier Parish Community College has used an Enhancement Program for Two-Year Institutions grant to augment its Technical Competency Certificate in Biotechnology, to better prepare students for work in all phases of the industry, from production to research and development and quality control. The result of BoRSF funding is elevated capacity to prepare students for four-year training programs, enhanced hands-on training opportunities, and increased opportunities in the regional high-tech workforce.
Undergraduate Enhancement funding has helped Centenary College to integrate state-of-the-art 2D and 3D design resources into the Department of Art and Visual Culture through establishment of a digital 2D and 3D modeling computer lab. This modeling technology, at the cutting edge of the booming field of digital design, provides students with skills critical to success in the workforce and graduate study in studio arts, design, and related fields.
Louisiana State University has continued to address Louisiana’s demand for high-quality, well-trained K-12 teachers in math, science, engineering and technology fields through a Traditional Enhancement award designed to boost teacher participation in professional master’s degree programs. Board of Regents support enabled LSU to launch a new track of the Master’s of Natural Science degree program designed specifically for in-service math and science teachers.
A Traditional Enhancement award at Tulane University has enabled the Biomedical Engineering program to incorporate engineering design into its curriculum. The project aided development of a design studio teaching laboratory that, in concert with curriculum revisions, provides students with opportunities that prepare them both for professional practice and translational research.
An RCS researcher at LSU Health Sciences Center – New Orleans, in collaboration with partners at Louisiana State University, is investigating a novel protein, insulinoma-associated 1, to determine its role in small cell lung carcinoma, a form of lung cancer. RCS support enabled the development of an animal model to study the protein in vivo, to better understand its function both in normal lung development and in lung cancers.
An award made to Fletcher Technical Community College through the Enhancement Program for Two-Year Institutions has helped to strengthen the production safety systems course and training laboratory by acquiring new equipment and materials that allow students to learn on real-life systems. Students, most of whom go on to work for offshore oil companies, are able to receive hand-on training in activating and calibrating equipment crucial to preventing accidental release of hydrocarbons.