/news-archive/tag/rene-shroat-lewis/ 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock Tue, 27 Mar 2018 13:00:53 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 /news-archive/2018/03/27/signature-experience-award-takes-student-bahamas/ Tue, 27 Mar 2018 13:00:53 +0000 /news/?p=69862 ... Signature Experience Award takes student to the Bahamas]]> Rebecca Bishop, a Donaghey Scholar whose research interests lie in the health of diseased coral reef, will use her Signature Experience Award funds this summer to travel to San Salvador, an island in the Bahamas, to collect and analyze coral reef samples at the Gerace Research Centre. Bishop, a sophomore environmental geology major, was among the first group of University of Arkansas at Little Rock students to receive Chancellor Andrew Rogerson鈥檚 newly instituted Signature Experience Award. During the fall 2017 semester, he awarded 79 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock students $1,000 to assist in the purchase of materials for a one-semester project or experience in research or creative works. 鈥淚’ve always been interested in coral reefs because of how incredibly diverse and important they are as an ecosystem,鈥� Bishop explained. 鈥淭he more I learned about corals, however, the more I understood how much danger they were in.鈥� Through her research, Bishop found that the frequency of increasingly warming temperatures and extreme weather events threatened the future of coral reefs. To gain a better understanding of how these conditions impacted the animals, Bishop decided to explore them in San Salvador, an island with very little literature about the ecological health of its reefs. 鈥淭here is still a lot we don’t know about coral diseases and their causes, but when I learned that I could help contribute to the information surrounding coral and their health, I became eager to start my own research,鈥� she said. Bishop has already dived into the discovery stage of her project, 鈥淚ncidence of Coral Reef Disease on San Salvador Island.鈥� From March 19-24 during spring break, she and her Geology and Ecology of the Bahamas class traveled to the Bahamas for field study. While there, Bishop began the preliminary work of her project, scoping out sample sites and inspecting coral diseases. Bishop鈥檚 overall research goal seeks to continue the monitoring of coral reefs, while using the findings to help establish a marine reserve with active management and a regulations enforcement plan for San Salvador鈥檚 reef system. Dr. Ren茅 Shroat-Lewis, assistant professor of paleontology and geoscience in the Department of Earth Sciences, serves as her advisor. Bishop will complete her bachelor鈥檚 degree in geology in 2020, and afterward, plans to head to graduate school to study oceanography. Not only is Bishop thrilled to do the research she enjoys, she鈥檚 also grateful to have the university鈥檚 support, expressed through the Signature Experience Award, to back her in her endeavors. 鈥淭he Signature Experience Award has been extremely important for me,鈥� Bishop said. 鈥淏ecause my research focuses on an area outside of the United States, the costs associated with my project are a bit high. If it weren’t for the help and support I’ve received from the Signature Experience Award, I wouldn’t be able to conduct such exciting and unique research.鈥�  ]]> /news-archive/2017/11/15/climate-change-reality-corps/ Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:14:57 +0000 /news/?p=68579 ... 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock employees complete Climate Reality Leadership Corps]]> Two employees from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock have recently become two of only five people in the state of Arkansas to complete the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, a nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by Nobel Laureate and former Vice President Al Gore.聽 The Climate Reality Leadership Corps provides training in climate science and communications to better tell the story of climate change. The training is provided by the. Dr. Jessica Scott, assistant director of the Donaghey Scholars honors program and instructor in the Anthropology Department, and Dr. Rene Shroat-Lewis, assistant professor in the Department of Earth Sciences, attended the training with 1,300 other participants Oct. 17-19 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 鈥淏eing in this group of 1,300 people who were all dedicated to the same thing was powerful,鈥� Shroat-Lewis said. 鈥淭here are a lot of people working to solve climate change. There is strength in knowing that this many people all came together.鈥� Over the summer, Scott and Shroat-Lewis were looking for inspiration for the class they will be teaching in the spring semester, Science and Society II, to a group of 25 Donaghey Scholars. The course is inspired by the paper 鈥淭ragedy of the Commons,鈥� by noted ecologist Garrett Hardin. Environmentalism and sustainability are a recurring theme throughout the course. When Scott and Shroat-Lewis went to the movies this summer, they thought the Climate Reality Leadership Corps shown in the film, 鈥淎n Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,鈥� would provide great educational materials for their upcoming class. 鈥淥ne of the things we love about our course is that it is not strictly academic,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淭here is public policy and political advocacy as well. Students work in small teams to write environmental grant proposals. The Environmental Protection Agency has a fund for undergraduate students for sustainability projects on campus. We encourage our students to submit those proposals.鈥� Scott and Shroat-Lewis are available to give public presentations on climate change and plan to work with the additional three Arkansans who have taken the training. 鈥淲e saw this as an opportunity to get our involvement in this issue outside the academic realm and to engage with the wider community,鈥� Scott said. 鈥淲e want to help bring this issue to a statewide level. We are the Natural State, after all, so we should be on the forefront of this issue.鈥�]]>