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Students from Across the Country Conduct Various Experiments During Residential Research Experience

Greenspaces are critical and the importance of understanding and enhancing them are equally significant, according to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Shannon McCarragher, PhD. 

This summer, 10 students from universities across the country have been part of the Socio-Ecological Role of Greenways in Urban Systems (SERGUS) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at SIUE. 

“Greenways serve as an interface between human and natural systems across urban environments, and thus may serve as a means for enhancing urban resilience,” said McCarragher, a biogeographer and assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Geography and Geographic Information Sciences (GIS). 

At SIUE, McCarragher is the lead Principal Investigator (PI) of the multi-institutional, interdisciplinary grant funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and given to focus on greenways. Alan Black, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Geography and GIS, is the co-PI.   

NSF awarded the $405,000, three-year grant to both SIUE and University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) in 2023. Heading up the grant at UTC are DeAnna E. Beasley, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Biology, Geology and Environmental Science, lead PI; and Christopher Acuff, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Service, co-PI. 

The first year of the program was hosted at UTC and focused on greenways in Chattanooga. This year, a 10-week residential program was hosted at SIUE, and students explored greenbelts in Edwardsville, according to McCarragher. Students arrived at the University on May 27 and the program will conclude on July 30. 

“My initial draw to this program was its interdisciplinary nature,” said Grace Witsken, who is transferring this fall from Lewis and Clark Community College to SIUE. “Before this program, I had primarily worked with researchers in the same field as myself. This program provided an opportunity to study the same topic from various perspectives, therefore, broadening my understanding of the problem and its possible solutions.” Witsken will major in biological science and specialize in ecology, evolution and conservation. She is minoring in chemistry and GIS. 

“I was drawn to this program because of its intersection of social sciences and natural sciences,” said William Moore, a junior at Texas State University. “I’m majoring in Urban and Regional Planning but took an ecology class last semester for my Sustainability Studies minor and really enjoyed it. This summer, I got to develop my skills related to my studies and learn basic knowledge about adjacent fields.”  

“Each week, students were introduced to concepts that provided them with context for the research they were conducting,” said McCarragher. “We built in opportunities for experts and local stakeholders to speak to the students and provided experiential learning field trips.” 

“Students did a lot of field work to explore the role of the greenways on the urban environment of Edwardsville,” said Dr. Black. “This included conducting bike rides with weather equipment to explore how climate varies along the greenways. In addition, students have performed surveys of vegetation along the greenbelts and explored the different types of ants that are found along the greenways and their food preferences.” 

According to McCarragher, two main questions drove the research: 

• What are the social and ecological drivers of microclimate and human usage patterns in urban greenway networks, from a megacity scale to a finer rural scale that captures a range of human experiences? 

• How can empirical evidence on urban greenway dynamics inform the broader scientific community and local community stakeholders about ways to mitigate environmental impacts and social disparities that lead to more resilient cities?  

The data collected conveyed a great deal about the impacts that the environmental corridors have on cities, and how those impacts differ for cities of varying sizes, noted McCarragher. 

The program’s hope was that the students developed the following skills from the experience: 

• The ability to effectively communicate across interdisciplinary lines and with various community stakeholders. 

• The ability to integrate Geographic Information Systems (GIS) into socio-ecological research. 

• The ability to execute appropriate methods for collecting socio-ecological data. 

• The ability to analyze and evaluate socio-political and scientific interpretations of information. 

• The ability to evaluate the political, ethical and environmental implications involved in conducting and disseminating community-engaged research. 

• The ability to develop an appreciation for the variety of accepted practices and ethical values that guide the responsible conduct of scientific research.  

“The most significant thing I have learned this summer is the various career options that are available in my field,” noted Witsken. “Through the REU’s experiential learning activities, we have had the opportunity to meet people in many environmental careers and hear about the path they took to arrive in their roles. These meetings have provided insights for possible career paths, helped me discover what I want in a career, and built a professional network in the greater Edwardsville area that I can utilize in the future.” 

“I gained a lot of confidence in my abilities and knowledge,” said Moore. “Everyone in the program brought something different to the table, and I picked up some of the interests of my peers. I now have more well-rounded knowledge on a variety of topics. I will incorporate this knowledge into my future work.” 

“My most significant experience of the program was creating and presenting a personal research poster,” continued Moore. “I’ve done research projects for classes in the past, but I have always felt limited by the rubric and feeling the need to incorporate certain elements in order to get a good grade. Without the pressure of earning a grade, I was able to be passionate about my project and execute it in a way that worked best for me.” 

Lessons learned by all the students were displayed in a poster presentation Tuesday, July 23 at the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center (NGRREC) in East Alton. The presentation highlighted individual students’ contributions to the larger SERGUS REU project, alongside posters from students who are participating in a NGRREC REU project about watersheds in the modern world. 

The students will also give a group presentation from 9:30-10:30 a.m. Tuesday, July 30 in the Large Meeting Room at the Edwardsville Public Library, 112 S Kansas St. in Edwardsville. Following their talk from 10:30-11:30 a.m., people are invited to browse the students’ individual posters and discuss with them their research experience and findings. 

The REU program is one of the many collaborative projects of the Urban Greenspace Research Collaborative (UGRC), an interdisciplinary team of researchers exploring the interface between social and ecological processes in urban systems, according to McCarragher. McCarragher, Beasley and Acuff are founding Principal Investigators of the UGRC.  

Photos:
Top left: Grace Witsken prepares for a weather bike ride by placing a microclimate sensor in a bike basket to collect local temperature, relative humidity and dew point temperature. Top right: Back row left to right: Rachel Hardt, Natalia Rodríguez-Otero, Lierin Peterson, Christopher Taylor and William Moore. Front row left to right: Victoria Gualario, Willow Anderson, Dr. Shannon McCarragher, Mia Avera, Noel Silberhorn, Iyanuoluwa Fatunmbi, Grace Witsken, Dr. Alan Black and Mollie Morrisey. 

Bottom left: Avera rides the weather bike as Taylor (left) and Rodríguez-Otero (right) download data. Bottom right: Back row left to right: Silberhorn, Moore, Peterson, Rodríguez-Otero and Taylor. Front row left to right: Gualario, Hardt, Anderson, Avera and Witsken.