Participants during the Florida Water Tour: (a) Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary, Naples, FL (b) Water Purification Plant, Manatee County, Sarasota, FL (c) Costa Nursery, Homestead, FL (d) Rapid Infiltration Basins (RIBS) at Water

Conserv II, Winter Garden, FL

Some of the highlights of the Program include: • 263 applications representing 131 institutions, with

students pursuing a variety of majors. • 26 students have conducted research that integrates

extension in Florida. • For most students, the REU Program at UF provided the

first exposure to the “extension” concept and introduced them to integration of research and extension. Many students were unaware of the “extension concept” and how integration of research and extension is essential to sustaining and enhancing the quality of human life.

• This model of providing integrated research and extension opportunities where not all the REU participants are co-located prepares students for collaborative research among scientists and small businesses, who may not be co-located. As we solve complex problems in water resources using interdisciplinary approaches, increasingly collaborations are essential among different sectors.

ABSTRACT As part of the NSF-funded Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Program in Water Resources at the University of Florida (UF), the students are provided with a unique opportunity to understand the linkages between research and extension, while conducting interdisciplinary research in water resources. The eight-week REU Program utilizes the extensive infrastructure of UF – Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) through the Research and Education Centers (RECs). Some students are located at the main campus, in Gainesville, FL, while others students are distributed off-campus, at the RECs, where some of the UF/IFAS faculty are located. This year, three students are conducting research internationally. The students achieve an enriching cohort experience through social networking, daily blogs, and weekly video conferences to share their research and other REU experiences. Several projects for the students involve extension-oriented research working with faculties who have significant extension appointments. All the students are introduced to various types of extension activities across Florida during the Orientation and the 5-day Florida Waters Tour across the state. They learn about water issues in different sectors and visit farms, homes, and the Water Management Districts. Feedback and assessment forms from the past years’ Program indicate that, for most students, our Program was their first exposure to extension in water resources. This model of providing integrated research and extension opportunities in hydrology, where not all the REU participants are physically co-located, is unique and can be extended to other disciplines.

A Distributed-Framework for the Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Water Resources Jasmeet Judge1*, Kati Migliaccio2, Reza Ehsani3, Bin Gao4, Eric McLamore4, Rafa Munoz-Carpena4, Rao Mylavarapu5, James Syvertsen6, and Jeff Ullman4

Student Participants: Cassandra Admire, Ella Baar, Tyler Barzee, Catherine Chen, Samuel Frey, Kaitlin Johnson, Adam Luke, Samantha McEntire, Jacob Powell, Evan Wesley, and Wen Yang

Coordinator: Daniel Preston1and Shannon Noble4 Graduate student Mentor: Stacia Davis4

1Center for Remote Sensing, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 2Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Tropical Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Homestead, FL

3Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, FL 4Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

5Soil and Water Science, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 6Horticulture, Citrus Research and Education Center, University of Florida, Lake Alfred, FL

2011 REU Ice-Breaker Activity 2011 REU Participants during Orientation

REU PROGRAM

Providing research experiences to undergraduate students motivates them to pursue advanced degrees, offers training in problem solving and critical thinking via hands-on projects, and also offers excellent mentoring and recruiting opportunities for the faculty advisors. The objective of the Water Resources REU-site at the University of Florida (UF) is to provide undergraduate students in the STEM disciplines with eight weeks of research experiences focused on sustaining water resources through the integration of research and extension. This REU is the first distributed site in Hydrological Sciences, where the participants are not co-located, but are still expected to have positive cohort experiences. The REU projects have been conducted in Gainesville, Homestead, Lake Alfred, and Immokalee, FL (See Figure 2). As an enhancement to the existing Program, faculties from Soil and Water Science Department and Horticultural Sciences Department also joined the team of Mentors; two students are located internationally, in India; and one student visited Jordan and Tunisia for 2 weeks as a part of the research experience. The students share their research and other REU experiences through social networking, daily blogs, and weekly group meetings held synchronously through video conferences to achieve an enriching cohort experience. All the students are co-located during the orientation week (See Table 1), the 5-day Florida Waters Tour (except internationally located students), and during the three days at the end of the Program. Following the first week of the program (see Table 1), the students write their 1-page project summaries while working closely with their research mentor. Weekly group meetings are attended by all students, research mentors, the coordinator, and the graduate student mentor to ensure adequate progress. Students provide a 15-minute oral presentation on their progression at the half way point, about four weeks into the program, where they are anonymously evaluated by attendees. The five day Florida Waters Tour includes visits to sites and institutions of hydrological interest across Florida and the RECs that are hosting the students (See Figure 2). The integration of research and extension is achieved through the projects at the RECs, guest lectures, extension workshops, and visits to the Water Management Districts in Florida. During the last week of the Program, two days are allocated for students to meet any faculty that have sparked their interest while at UF. The students present their research results during a Symposium on the final day of the Program which is attended by graduate students, faculty, and the UF/IFAS administration. Additional opportunities exist for students to continue their research beyond the eight week period and are encouraged to present their research results at an industry-related conference during the fall semester.

Figure 1: Origins of REU Participants (Yellow Pins More Than One Participant)

Participant Engaged in Field Activities

RESULTS

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The REU Program was supported by the award NSF-EAR-0851893. Partial Support for the activities was provided by the ABE Department and the Center for Remote Sensing at UF. Support for the international component was provided by the UF/IFAS Dean of Research Office, and UF-International Programs through their NSF-HRD-0833439 award (http://i3.institutes.ufl.edu/). We also thank many people who presented guest lectures, hosted field visits, and advised on research projects.

Oral Presentation during the 2010 Final Symposium

Poster Presentation during the 2011 Final Symposium

Participants during tour of Citrus REC in Lake Alfred

Figure 2: Route for the “Florida Waters Tours” during the REU Program. CREC: Citrus Research and Education Center, Lake Alfred, FL JPCRSP: John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo, FL SFWMD: South Florida Water Management District Headquarters, West Palm Beach, FL SWFREC: South West Florida Research and Education Center, Immokalee, FL TREC: Tropical Research and Education Center, Homestead, FL

2010 Participants attending extension workshop on Best Management Practices

Participants Engaged in Field Activities

Table 2: Projects of REU participants during the REU Program

REU Participants attending Biofuel Extension Symposium

REU Participants attending Extension Workshop on Irrigation Best Management Practices

Name Year Mentor Project Title Cassandra Admire 2012 Mylavarapu Water Quality Monitoring In Agricultural Watersheds of the Semi Arid Tropics in Hyderabad India

Ella Baar 2012 Mylavarapu Water Quality Monitoring In Agricultural Watersheds of the Semi Arid Tropics in Hyderabad India Tyler Barzee 2012 Gao Production of Biochar by Microwave Pyrolysis from Bamboo and Hollow Fiber Membrane Bioreactor Digestion Residue

Catherine Chen 2012 Ullman Water Resource Management in the Greater Middle East Samuel Frey 2012 McLamore Sustainable Green Roof Irrigation using Wastewater

Kaitlin Johnson 2012 Ehsani Identification of Water Stress in Citrus Leaves Using Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy Adam Luke 2012 Judge Sensitivity of microwave backscatter to soil moisture under bare soil conditions

Samantha McEntire 2012 Syvertsen Understanding Salinity Stress in Citrus Jacob Powell 2012 Migliaccio Study of the Application of Bowen Ratio for Evapotranspiration Measurement in Turf grass Systems Evan Wesley 2012 Migliaccio The Development of a More accurate Equation as a function of Photosynthetic Active Radiation and other variables to estimate Evapotranspiration

Wen Yang 2012 Murnoz-Carpena Colloid Particle Filtration via Laminar Overland Flow Through Emergent Vegetation Kaileigh Calhoun 2011 Migliaccio Correction of the Analysis of HFP01 Heat Flux Sensor Data Collected during Periods of Rainfall

Emma Dixon 2011 Ehsani Visible and Near-Infrared Imaging for Water Stress Detection in Citrus Mikayla Marvin 2011 Ehsani Detection of Water Stress in Citrus Groves Using High-Resolution Aerial Thermography

Mary Morris 2011 Judge Microwave Emission from a Growing Season of Elephant Grass Andrew Neal 2011 McLamore Greywater Reuse Using Membrane Aerated Bioreactors

Madeline Porterfield 2011 McLamore The Use of Nanoparticles in the Detection of Microsystin-LR with Electrochemical Sensors Olivia Williams 2011 Judge Estimation of retention curves for sandy soils and their impact on water transport in an SVAT model Melissa Benitez 2010 Shukla Quantify evapotranspiration for wetlands located in ranchlands of South Florida

Kevin Koryto 2010 Migliaccio Applicability of CS616 Soil Water Sensors for South Florida Soils Laura Merriman 2010 Shukla Quantifying Evapotranspiration (ET) for Wetlands Liliana Zepeda 2010 Migliaccio Comparing evapotranspiration estimates from an eddy covariance method to weather data methods in South Florida

REU Participant Engaged in Field Activities REU Participants Touring Water Structures in South Florida

Students participated in a Florida Water StarSM demonstration at the Palm Coast Utility