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Sign up for your Research Learning Experience!

New this fall, UMPI first-year students get the chance to take part in real, professor-guided research. These one-credit courses start with a 3-day bridge experience Aug. 24-26, just before orientation begins, and include coursework during the fall semester.
  • Get involved in hands-on research your very first year
  • Take advantage of FREE room and board during the 3-day bridge experience
  • Go virtual with our Online RLE option
  • Meet friends and connect with upperclass peer mentors

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Sign up by 8/19 to ensure your preferred option!

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Learn more about our RLE offerings!

Working to Achieve Zero Hunger - A Research Learning Experience on Food Insecurity

Instructors: Shannon Sleeper and Teri St. Pierre

Students will conduct research on food insecurity on a global, national, and local level and develop strategies to achieve zero hunger. Through local community engagement students will develop skills in research design, statistics, and communication.

Climate Change, Energy, and Critical Mineral Resources

Instructor: Chunzeng Wang

Students will evaluate relationships among energy consumption, environmental hazards, new technologies, and sustainability. Students will survey the scientific literature and conduct field work at local renewable energy facilities and mineral resource sites. Note: one Friday afternoon and one Saturday all-day field trip.

Understanding and Responding to Violent Extremism and Terrorism

Instructor: Brent Andersen

This course will examine the origins, manifestations, and consequences of political extremism, violence, and terrorism, using selected examples both from within the U.S. and around the globe. Students will employ research tools that scholars use to investigate these threats and the conditions which produce them, including opinion surveys, interviews, covert observation, and content analysis.

Optimizing Greenhouse Production

Instructor: Larry Feinstein

This course will provide basic information regarding plant nutritional needs, soil properties, and fertilizer sources that could be used to optimize yields of produce. Fertilizer sources will include chemical and a variety of compost tea infusions that students make and test. Students will develop hypotheses and growing trial conditions to test how different fertilizer sources influence yields of greenhouse produce.

Data Science Programming Experience

Instructor: Mark Royer

Students will work through technical programming problems that arise when working with real-world, scientific data.  To start, students will consult biologists or environmental scientists to determine a
domain-specific data set to investigate for the semester. By the semester's conclusion, students will have gained experience with programming techniques for data analysis and data visualization.

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