EUGENE, Ore. -- (Feb. 22, 2010) -- Do a search on the Web about growth at community colleges, and a lot of stories pop up about how the nation's economy is driving more young people to two-year institutions. University of Oregon educators see this as a trend worth tapping to attract students interested in pursuing careers in the physical sciences.

Since 2007, when the UO launched a National Science Foundation-funded five-year program called "Undergraduate Catalytic Outreach and Research Experiences" (UCORE), 39 of the 43 participants of UCORE's first two years who have completed the program -- 91 percent -- have transferred from their community colleges to an Oregon university to pursue bachelor's degrees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

These four fields are known as STEM. They've been targeted with 148 grants across the nation under the NSF's STEM Talent Expansion Program since 2004 to help science-interested students earn associate’s and bachelor's degrees.

So far in 2009-10, the 25 current UCORE Fellows of the 10-week summer program on campus -- where they each receive a $3,500 stipend and housing -- have contributed 2,002 hours (as of Jan. 31) of outreach at their home community colleges. All 25 have indicated they will transfer to a university.

The program doesn't attempt to lure students out of community colleges before they finish their two-year enrollment; rather UCORE aims to foster their interest in obtaining STEM degrees by feeding them into universities. So far, 17 have enrolled in programs at Oregon State University, 12 at the UO, eight at Portland State, one at the Oregon Institute of Technology, and one at Reed College. The deadline to apply for UCORE for 2010-11 is Feb. 26.

The program launched at the UO in 2007 with a $2 million NSF grant to Dean Livelybrooks, a tenured senior instructor who specializes in geophysics, and David Johnson, professor of chemistry. Kate Hulpke of the UO's Materials Science Institute is the program coordinator.

UCORE currently partners with six community colleges: Portland's Sylvania, Rock Creek and Cascade campuses; Lane; Mt. Hood; and Umpqua. Approximately 25 Fellows are selected to participate each year. In the first two years, the program also attracted students from Chemeketa and Central Oregon community colleges.

Each summer, the Fellows conduct research with UO physicists, chemists and geologists and prepare reports on their projects. They present their research papers at summer's end to peers, faculty and family members. In three summers, 70 community college students -- 46 men and 24 women – enrolled, and 68 completed the 10-week summer component. Half are first-generation college students.

They then return in the fall to their community colleges and do "catalytic outreach," in which they serve as science ambassadors, talking about their summer research in classrooms and campus events. They also serve as peer tutors and assist in science labs. For this leadership, UCORE pays them $10 an hour for up to 10 hours a week. In essence, each student becomes a recruiter for UCORE in particular and four-year STEM degree programs in general. Participants in the first two summers of the program provided 9,644 hours of outreach.

The program's success at the UO has attracted national attention and is being used as a model for similar programs under the NSF's STEM Talent Expansion Program. Eleven participating universities and their partners sent 35 representatives to an October workshop hosted by the UO at Belknap Hot Springs near Eugene to discuss the challenges of promoting the continuing science-related education of community college students. In January, members of the UO's program were invited guests at the eighth annual meeting of the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students in Dallas, where Livelybrooks and Hulpke described UCORE and the results from the October workshop.

The UO's Dan Udovic, professor emeritus of biology and environmental studies, under a separate NSF grant of $323,909, is the organizer of the annual meetings in Washington, D.C., for the STEM Talent Enhancement Program (STEP) for 2010-2012. This year's meeting runs March 3-5 at the Marriott Crystal Gateway, where more than 350 STEP-connected scientists, including five from the UO, will gather to talk about their efforts.

"Among the key challenges that STEP projects face are generating and maintaining interest in STEM careers among students, making sure that students have adequate preparation to succeed in STEM degree programs, creating a campus climate that facilitates recruitment and retention of STEM students and providing an up-to-date STEM curriculum that prepares students for the workforce and/or advanced study," Udovic said. "It's also important to find ways to sustain these kinds of activities when external funding ceases."

Involving students in undergraduate research early in their freshman and sophomore years -- as is done with UCORE -- addresses a number of the challenges, he added.

"For a variety of reasons, it is especially difficult but very important to get community college students involved in research activities," Udovic said. "Given that a very large fraction of students choose a path that includes spending their early college years in the community colleges, building ties between the community colleges and STEM communities at four-year institutions is critical in any attempt to significantly increase the number of STEM graduates.

The UO's goals for UCORE's funding period, which ends Dec. 31, 2011, are to increase the number of students transferring from partner community colleges to universities in STEM majors by 15 percent, increase by 20 percent both the number of these students transferring to and obtaining bachelor's degrees at the UO and raise the percentage of undergraduate degrees in STEM fields from 7.9 percent to 13 percent at all Oregon University System universities.

The deadline for community college students to apply for admission to the 2010-11 UCORE program is 5 p.m., Feb. 26. The on-campus research portion will be June 21-Aug. 27. Eligibility requirements and an online application are available at UCORE's Web site.