Joanne’s project is a qualitative research initiative of Food Solutions New England (FSNE), which is spearheaded by the Sustainability Academy of the University and is designed to “make more visible the invisible” through observation, interview, engagement, and analysis. The goal of this project is to gather and visualize first hand perspectives of the food system from those involved in direct services, those who are marginalized by the system, and those who work to promote food security sustainability and access and food justice. Through collaboration among University researchers, funders and community members, representatives from key food system sectors will be interviewed, including, but not limited those working on farms, in food production and processing, those engaged in health and nutrition care, food system research as well as those striving to promote social economic justice.

Forecasting is of great importance to lodging executives for setting strategic plans, developing budgets, and measuring performance. Raymond’s project will develop a unique index that assesses the sentiment of key lodging executives about the present and future conditions in the US lodging industry. The relationship of this index to key economic variables such as employment, GDP growth, and the stock market will then be analyzed, and the usefulness of this index as a leading indicator for future conditions in the lodging industry will be tested. This project requires the close and sustained participation of over 20 executives representing the leading US lodging companies such as Marriott International, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Hotels, major franchisees, as well as franchisors, of these major brands.

This project builds on Joan’s work to gain knowledge to improve the health and well-being of persons with disabilities who have faced health disparities, one of which is the lack of education for health care professionals about the needs of persons with disabilities. The project intends to bring together health care providers, UNH nursing students, and adults (55 and older) aging with disabilities in an attempt to better understand proper health care and treatment for those living with disabilities. The goal of this project is advancement in public knowledge about the health needs of people with disabilities in the local community health care environment. It is anticipated that a collaborative approach among project partners will result in distribution of this work via training sessions and/or public forums.

In 2008, Leitzel Center staff led by the efforts of Stephen Hale and his colleague Erik Froburg embarked on an informal (i.e., non-random, non-statistical) Needs Assessment for teachers showing interest in the Advancing Science program. The Advancing Science Project provides a mechanism for outreach from the University to science teachers throughout the state of NH. Although small in size, this project is a representative example of the much larger national movement toward transformation in education and pedagogy in the K-16 teaching and learning levels. More specifically, this project partners University expertise and resources in analytical instrumentation and pedagogical practices to improve the content knowledge and pedagogy of NH science teachers – moving middle and high school instruction for NH students toward 21st century skills supported by a culture of enriched student-driven inquiry. The program models pedagogical change that should ultimately infiltrate and transform teaching even at the university-level, and as such reinforces the interconnections between teaching, research, and engagement.

Joel’s study will develop an integrated methodology to detect, analyze, and synthesize the social and ecological changes in coupled forest and human communities, using Wallowa County as a case study. By examining changes in forest area, health, composition, and structure using satellite imagery analysis across all ownership and management regimes, Joel’s group will assess the shifting importance of forests to local people in response to demographic change, the decline in timber production, the growth of the tourism sector and an increase in amenity-driven migration. By coupling social and ecological field research, they will address linkages between social and ecological change at multiple scales, thusly determining the role that appropriately scaled forest products enterprises can play in improving both forest and community health. The research framework and results will be used to establish a working research methodology that will serve as the foundation for future integrative longitudinal (and comparative) social and ecological studies.

There is a growing recognition across the New England states of the need to make the region’s contemporary Native American people and concerns more visible, and to create increased dialogues between Native and non-Native American communities. Meghan and Siobhan have partnered to plan and implement the University of New Hampshire’s first Indigenous New England Conference. The objective of hosting this conference at UNH is to build on existing working relationships between scholars at UNH and local Abenaki communities and to give coherence to the many overlapping research, teaching and service interests in Native American Studies at UNH. The conference itself can be understood as a plan to continue collaborations beyond the single weekend it takes place. This engagement initiative is hopefully the first of many Indigenous New England conferences to be held either annually or every other year and the formal start of a broader vision and engagement with Native communities and scholarship at UNH.

Many nonprofit organizations have neither the time nor the resources to address many of the issues that relate to their productivity, planning, quality, directing, etc. The goal of Kelly’s project is to address the business needs of the non-profit and the educational needs of the students enrolled in the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) program. The SIFE program, supported through student involvement, applies business theory toward non-profits and social enterprises in the Manchester, NH area. This includes such tools as business plans to secure greater funding, marketing plans to acquire more community recognition, brainstorming techniques for identifying new activities, and synergistic decision making for problem solving. The SIFE students track the results of their input for an unspecified time-period and disseminate their results to executives in the New England area as part of a regional competition.

The goal of the UNH Manchester Warmth from the Millyard project is to mobilize the UNH Manchester community in a winter clothing drive to demonstrate the collective power of college and community members to address the local need for warm clothes through collaborative partnerships. Ginger’s project will evaluate the effectiveness of the Warmth from the Millyard clothing drive to address community need while also building a sense of community and increasing social capital, philanthropy, and civic engagement at UNH Manchester and the Department of Transportation. In addition, the project will seek to identify factors that increase organizational wellness and improve communication at UNH Manchester and the Department’s divisions and bureaus and the communities they serve.

This project is part of a New Investigator in Earth Science grant funded by NASA, titled “Estimation of tropical forest structure using multiple remote sensing platforms and field based data.” Although fundamentally simple in concept, the use of remote imaging techniques to collect a wide range of data relating to forest structure and ecosystem response requires a cognitive jump that needs to be nurtured in K-12 students. Michael will develop an approach to improve understanding of the underlying concepts and potential of ecosystem imaging to middle and high school teachers and students. His goal is to create a hands-on experience and context that will inform students how scientists use imaging as a research tool in Earth System Science and on the effects of a changing climate on terrestrial ecosystems.

This project is a partnership between two non-profit organizations, researchers at two land-grant Universities, and farmers in New Hampshire, Massachusetts and neighboring states. The overall goal is to increase the available supply of locally grown vegetables during the winter months of November through April. Becky’s project includes several components including developing and expanding marketing opportunities, extending and making more available existing knowledge about low-cost strategies to store vegetable crops that are suited to that practice, building new knowledge about winter and very early spring growing and harvesting techniques, and expanding farmer networks to permit more information exchange. The project will focus on developing research-based information about best practices for overwintering vegetable crops in low-cost low tunnel structures in the field, facilitating communication between vegetable producers that are currently growing for sales during the winter months, and making the best information about low-cost storage infrastructure and winter growing methods available and easily accessible to producers.

Through a combination of educational outreach and technical and financial assistance, Matt and his project partners will work directly with private landowners in southeastern New Hampshire to create and maintain habitat for endangered New England cottontail rabbits. Supported by over 20 years of New England cottontail research conducted by UNH faculty and students, this project directly connects the University with the public and cooperating state and federal agencies in an effort to restore uncommon and declining habitats in New Hampshire. Project successes and shortcomings will be evaluated in order to guide the range-wide restoration of New England cottontails and their habitat throughout New England. Project partners include: UNH Cooperative Extension, UNH Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, New Hampshire Fish and Game Department, US Fish and Wildlife Service, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, and the Wildlife Management Institute.

The goal of Hache Aliouche’s project is to develop a new and unique quantitative model that can be used to generate an index ranking all of the world’s countries in terms of potential opportunities and risks for international franchise expansion. International expansion is a central research theme for the Rosenberg International Center of Franchising (of which Hache the associate director), and this project is of great interest to, and requires the participation of, both academic and business practitioners.

Sarah’s research asks faculty, staff and students at the University of New Hampshire-Durham campus how effective they think current communications on campus about sustainability are – and what they recommend for improvements – in order to improve UNH University Office of Sustainability communications in ways that motivate and support these stakeholders to get involved with and advance sustainability on and off campus.

Since 1991, Paula has directed three 5-year community based CYFAR projects (Children, Youth and Families At Risk) funded through USDA/CSREES. The goal of these projects has been to improve outcomes for children and youth from high risk environments that include poverty, limited parent education, abuse and neglect, and other factors involving social services. In addition, practitioners find that effective community-based programs for children, youth and families reduce costs of human services, juvenile justice, and education by equipping those individuals and family units with the skills they need to lead positive, productive and contributing lives. This project will assess how these efforts fared within the sustainability framework developed through the national research, and prepare a guide to help future communities develop and deliver sustainable programs for at risk youth.

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Eric is developing a collaborative project to work with a university located in rural Zimbabwe, Midlands State University (MSU), to foster the sustainable use of rural woodlands in the region around Gweru, where MSU is located. This project will address a real need in rural Africa—the need to make rural socioeconomic development relevant to the education experienced by most Zimbabweans. This project will be developed in partnership with several educators at Midlands State University through hosting them at UNH for project development, engaging with the UNH community, and proposal writing. In the project, we will work with a women’s empowerment organization in Zimbabwe and several rural communities to 1) examine the use of indigenous knowledge in food production for rural communities develop, and 2) develop a community-based curriculum for secondary schools for disseminating the rational and scientific basis for indigenous knowledge in food production.

A large portion of the over $78 million dollar ornamental plants and vegetable market in New Hampshire is produced exclusively or temporarily in heated greenhouses. These two sectors of New Hampshire agriculture account for 44% of all agriculture products in the state. Producers are eager to identify ways to be more energy efficient while still producing high quality crops but lack the knowledge to conduct their own energy audits and/or the ability to pay for a professional energy audit. This project will allow the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension, in collaboration with The Sustainable Development and Energy Systems Group to perform energy audits at a low cost to New Hampshire vegetable and/or ornamental plant producers. Producers will receive customized reports with the results of the audit and the recommendations to increase energy efficiencies, along with access to the project web site and educational materials.

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This project involves working hand-in-hand with a local, non-profit organization that is experiencing “growing pains” as it develops from a small, relation, and mission-driven organization into a larger, bureaucratic organization that is attempting to energize members and have an impact on the local community. The organization is at a point where it wants to become more involved with the larger community and begin advocating for its particular demographic group (preschool age children and their families) in terms of recreational needs, educational policy, and community development. The goals of the project is to develop the leadership capacity of the organization’s Board of Directors through 1) increasing the total number of members on the Board, and 2) increasing the leadership performance of individual board members through assessment and coaching. It is hoped that these actions will allow for greater communication to and involvement of the larger membership, resulting in increasing member satisfaction with and participation in the organization and its activities. Ultimately, this should lead to the organization and its membership becoming a more recognized and visible stakeholder group in the local community.

More and more individuals that experience a brain injury are being saved by new technology in medicine. However, these individuals are finding that many previous skills that they had are either absence or impaired after injury. One issue that is consistent for this population is that of being socially isolated secondary to social skills in social situations. At the same time, most community programs are oriented towards meeting physical and cognitive performance issues but lack a model of addressing social skill performance. This project intends to develop and integrate a model for addressing social skills and social interaction as well as an outcome measurement method into a community-based program providing services for adults with acquired brain injury in which UNH occupational therapy students are involved. The Occupation Social Skill Model will be housed in the occupational therapy department at the UNH and will be available for use by students and practitioners at SteppingStones, other local community health programs as well as to occupational therapists in the United States and around the globe.

Across the country, cities, towns and counties are developing community indicator websites to better understand their communities and provide a central location for important social, civic, and economic data. Community indicator sites are also seen as a way to ‘democratize data’ – to provide access to information to a range of stakeholders, track progress on shared goals and help inform public policy in critical areas. To date, the Manchester, New Hampshire area does not have a comprehensive place for citizens and decision makers to access such data and information. The Carsey Institute currently maintains a handful of indicator sites providing access to socio-economic indicators for various places (like the North Country). The goal of this project is to create an accessible indicator website that allows users to gain a better understanding of important community and socio-economic issues. Informative, interactive, and up-to-date, the indicator sites allow users to search on specific, relevant indicators of well-being, as well as create tables and maps of pre-determined indicators.

The goal of this engaged scholarship project is to establish a mechanism to encourage interaction between the students, staff and faculty of the UNH Chemistry Department and scientists and other professionals working in New Hampshire industry, government and education, who encounter chemical problems on a routine or intermittent basis. The specific mechanism used in this project is a workshop to be held at UNH which will provide an opportunity for chemical professionals from outside the university to showcase their scientific interests, concerns, accomplishments, etc. to the students, staff and faculty of the UNH Chemistry Department.

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UNH Cooperative Extension (UNHCE) partnered with Seacoast Youth Services (SYS), a non-profit community organization in the town of Seabrook, to establish and support a positive youth development center in the lower seacoast area of New Hampshire. A mutual beneficial relationship between UNHCE and SYS has included the provision of quality youth programs, diverse youth and family involvement, hands-on internship placements, federal and local grant support, national conference participation, workshop presentations, and a growing community-based coalition with UNH as a primary partner with local community agencies. Since the project’s initiation in 2003, Rick’s role has involved a diversity of tasks, including program design/logic model development, best practice demonstration programming, staff training and supervision, mobilization of and connection with UNH and other resources, local/national grant development, program evaluation/reporting, and other technical assistance. Rick is now focused on sustainability and further documenting and sharing this experience. Additionally, he is looking forward to submitting this project for recognition and publication as a national 4-H Program of Distinction by the close of this year, and also plans to pursue academic/professional publication of the program.

The long-term goal of Serita’s project is to develop a teacher training program in environmental sciences for upper elementary and/or middle school teachers in Central America. Specific project goals are to 1) provide instruction on environmental sciences, with an emphasis on soil and water quality, 2) provide training on hypothesis testing, experimental design, and sample collection and analysis, and 3) assist teachers with implementing environmental science in their classrooms. Serita has received project funding and will spend three months of her sabbatical during the 2008-2009 academic year conducting a needs assessment in Costa Rica and Guatemala. Once the needs assessment has been completed, Serita plans to use these data to seek external grant funding to initiate and implement the program over the next few years. She anticipates that when fully implemented this program will increase the science education opportunities for K-12 teachers and students in Central America.

The Greater Manchester community is in need of both formal and informal educational opportunities in the area of sustainability. The goals of Sarah’s project are to provide area high school educators and their students with greener laboratory activities and training in the principles and practice of green chemistry. Another important goal is to educate UNH students on these practices, and to give them hands on, investigative research opportunities to attempt to green these activities on their own in the laboratory. This opportunity for original, immediately useful research is hoped to have a positive impact on students in this course and encourage those students to seek out future research opportunities. This project is the beginning of a new area of inquiry for Sarah - the impact of green chemistry practice and knowledge on student learning and motivation in chemistry. An application for a Math and Science Partnership (MSP) grant offered by the New Hampshire Department of Education will soon be underway. The larger goal will be to create a green chemistry educator network in the state of New Hampshire. Highlights of that project goal would be to have small groups of NH high school and middle school science teachers come to UNHM to learn about the practice of green chemistry.

Together with the Seacoast Science Center, Rye NH, and regional partners, Ru’s project team is working to build networks of Informal Science Education (ISE) Centers and UNH Researchers. The goal is to increase public understanding and stewardship of natural resources in coastal watersheds by expanding the work of the SSC and UNH. Self-guided family-focused GeoAdventures guidebooks will lead individuals and families to key watershed features. Interactive web-based planning and reporting activities will foster family learning. The efforts will be guided by an advisory group of core UNH faculty involved in all aspects of watershed research as well as specialized faculty as needed. In years 3 and 4 the team will transfer GeoAdventures to two other regions nationally forming a national network in year 5. The collaborations established will be mutually beneficial whereby science center content will be enriched and enabled by knowledge produced by university research. The work will advance and is aligned with the UNH Academic Strategic Plan goal of Engagement and Outreach.

The goal of Neil's project is to see the successful redevelopment of the Mill Plaza in a way that benefits the citizens of Durham, New Hampshire beyond the projected tax benefits that a more intensive use of the land will create. The fundamental research question is whether or not the creation of a new anchor for the downtown will be sufficient to initiate a broader redevelopment effort that will encompass the entire downtown. Neil will be intensely involved in the conceptualization of a plan, the calculation of the public and private benefits associated with the redevelopment, and the creation of the requisite financing plan that will be required in order to bring the project to fruition.

Julia’s project is an integrated, interdisciplinary, multi-state project that is applying environmental and behavioral research results to Extension efforts to reduce the application of excess nutrients on turf by homeowners (do-it-yourselfers, or DIYs) in targeted, urbanizing neighborhoods throughout New England with the ultimate goal of protecting surface and groundwater quality. The goal is to reduce nutrient runoff from residential properties in urbanizing watersheds and the expected impact will be to increase neighborhood residents’ knowledge about environmentally friendly lawn care practices, and their willingness to adopt a few of those practices. The project involves several primary components: environmental research, social science research, Extension educational objectives. The outreach evaluation component will lend itself to scholarly opportunities as Julia’s team addresses the question, “Was our outreach effective at changing the knowledge and attitudes of opinion leaders and DIYers?” with a particular interest in whether or not the outreach design benefited from the social science foundation.

The Division of Science and Technology at UNH Manchester is interested in applying for a NSF grant that supports a scholarship program for students pursuing bachelor’s degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Faculty in the Biology, Computer Information Systems, Engineering Technology, and Mathematics programs will work closely with the UNH Manchester admissions, financial aid, and student services offices to establish a partnership with other local stakeholders in STEM education. The project’s target audience is high school juniors and seniors and STEM majors in two-year community colleges in the Greater Manchester area. Mihaela’s team envisions establishing a partnership that bridges two important New Hampshire programs: the New Hampshire Scholars and the 55% Initiative. The NH Scholars program is a collaborative effort involving area business and school volunteers who encourage and motivate high school students to complete a more rigorous academic course of study. The 55% Initiative, launched by the University System of New Hampshire in January 2007, calls for promoting New Hampshire to future college graduates. This project’s intent is to build a STEM student scholarship program which will leverage the incentives the NH Scholars program presents to high school students. The 55% Initiative will promote Mihaela’s program to the partnering local organizations and facilitate participation in the student support structures the program will offer. In this effort, the team shares the goal of graduating well educated and skilled candidates for employment in science and technology areas in the state of New Hampshire. The expected outcome of this project is the awarding of the NSF S-STEM grant for four scholarship years and an initial one-year planning period.

Annette is currently participating in a NASA-funded education project, Measuring Vegetation Health, a collaboration of seven institutions led by the Museum of Science in Boston. The PicturePost system was developed as part of that project, which is ending in 2009. PicturePost enables the taking of photographs repeatedly from the same location and sharing them over the Internet. The concept has generated a lot of enthusiasm among citizen groups, schools, researchers and informal science centers. PicturePost can provide a wealth of information and data to monitor changing environmental conditions, which is critical for a society grappling with the effects of climate change. Annette’s project will build on the PicturePost concept by pilot-testing a post at the Seacoast Science Center in Rye, NH. Lessons learned from the pilot will inform the growth and development of a national, or possibly global, PicturePost Network. She envisions that the Network will take citizen science to a new level. It will empower citizens to observe and understand changes in their local environment and offer them a social network over the Internet that fosters the communication and knowledge that leads to action. The work Annette is proposing connects to the outreach mission of UNH by bringing together scientists and informal educators in a joint effort to increase scientific literacy in the public and serves the greater good by engaging citizens in an accessible and interesting science-based activity that serves important Earth system science research and connects them to a larger community through the Internet.

Manchester, New Hampshire is a complex, rapidly changing landscape for families and presents unique challenges to parents and caregivers who desire to raise healthy and productive children. Malcolm and his team have created The Family Education Collaborative, which has set the following goals and objectives, through the YWCA and Cooperative Extension: 1) to establish a model, working family resource center that provides evidence-based education and training to New Hampshire families, 2) to develop and disseminate statewide, through the network of Family Support New Hampshire, effective evidence-based parent education programs that are distinctly tailored to New Hampshire communities, 3) to provide a laboratory to engage scholars and students in effective research of changing family ecology, and to develop effective primary prevention programs for families facing an uncertain future, and 4) to build the capacity of family support and resource programs statewide to serve New Hampshire families by establishing standards and criterion for parent educators and creating a training program to assist those educators in obtaining competency in their craft. The Collaborative has already assisted the YWCA in the procurement of a $25,000 grant to further the work of the project. In addition, it is expected that within the second year of operation the Collaborative will establish minimum competencies for Parent Educators in New Hampshire and will begin a researched based education program to train the over 200 current educators at 22 family resource centers.

This project involves a reciprocal relationship between students and faculty of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) and The Krempels Brain Injury Foundation (TKBIF) in Portsmouth, NH. The on-going support of the UNH students and faculty, including Michael, provides the program with resources that totaled over 7,500 in-kind volunteer hours in 2006. Students are often engaged in research with faculty at SteppingStones, a community-based post-rehabilitation “clubhouse” model approach to long-term support for survivors of acquired brain injury. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the effectiveness of SteppingStones. Program participants (members, caregivers, and interns) will be asked to determine how effectively SteppingStones meets the needs of members. The project also seeks to determine how much participation in the program impacts the quality of life for the members. Finally, student involvement provides a driving force for the programs sustainability.

Kim’s project was developed to explore how members of one school’s K-3 faculty understand children’s literacy development, their own teaching practices, and assessment. Seventeen faculty members who work directly with students in grades K-3 have been asked to volunteer for this study. This study addresses three research questions: 1) how do faculty members at one school conceptualize their K-3 students’ literacy development? 2) What teaching practices do they implement and why? and 3) what informal and formal assessment tools do they utilize and why? This study is taking place at the Deerfield Community School located in Deerfield, NH. Kim will utilize the findings to impact future policy decisions, curricular decisions, and assessment procedures. It is the goal of this study to add to the body of literature on literacy and assessment from the teacher’s perspective and to offer information to the faculty of this particular school’s administration and faculty as they make future decisions relative to literacy and assessment.

Pingguo and Ken have developed a project which has the primary goal of increasing the economic value of landed northern shrimp by increasing the size selectivity of shrimp trawls. Methodology includes two tasks: 1) increase fishery stakeholders’ knowledge of available technology that will increase the size selectivity of shrimp and 2) provide at-sea demonstrations to interested fishermen and prototype gear to use by industry. The project hopes to use new technology which may result in increased revenue and more stable markets for the industry.

Jenna’s project involves a collaboration between Jenna and Blue Ocean Society for Marine Conservation, a local NH non-profit organization. A recent focus of marine debris research is to identify and target pollution sources so that solutions to the problem can be developed through policy and education. This project hopes to expand upon this focus by also examining public attitudes toward marine debris and using this information with cleanup data to systematically implement and test community mitigation techniques. The objectives of this project are to: 1) examine current community marine debris cleanup and reduction efforts in New Hampshire (as a baseline) by analyzing beach cleanup data and evaluating people’s behavior, 2) implement new community marine debris reduction efforts specifically targeting issues revealed in the first objective, and 3) evaluate the efforts in objective two by measuring impacts and outcomes.

Jeffrey’s project seeks to develop a methodology to successfully promote the real-world use of contaminated sediment remediation technologies being developed at the UNH Contaminated Sediment Center. This will be done by reviewing the outreach efforts conducted for their most advanced technology, assessing the effectiveness of these efforts, and then refining their approach. To assist Jeffrey in this project, he has engaged two MBA students from the Whittemore School of Business and Economics to conduct interviews with a population of potential end-users to determine if they know of the technology and to gauge their interest in it. The outcomes of this project will be a database of potential end-users, consultants, non-governmental organizations, federal agencies, and state agencies that deal with contaminated sediment remediation. From this database, Jeffrey intends to form a core group of supporters who will work with the CSC to develop and promote our technologies. A second outcome will be a system of promoting the technologies, complete with assessment methods.

Patrice coordinates the Internship Program at UNH Manchester. As a result of several requests from local organizations, Patrice was prompted to consider a new initiative, the development of a Center for Community Engagement (or service), which would house a number of different services such as, internships, service-learning projects for specific classes, volunteer opportunities, and a mechanism for responding to direct requests from local organizations for assistance in solving problems. The Center would also assist faculty, staff and students in identifying opportunities for outreach and outreach scholarship in the community. This initiative will help UNH Manchester fulfill its urban mission as outlined in the most recent strategic plan by fostering connections between the College and the greater Merrimack Valley region. In addition, the initiative is consistent with the University’s goal of expanding outreach efforts as stated in the academic strategic plan. The project is designed to provide the data necessary for writing a grant proposal to secure sustainable funding to support the Center.

Jesse’s project expands upon the existing investigation referred to as the Young Adult Health Risk Screening Initiative (YAHRSI). YAHRSI currently provides individualized health screening information and examines diet, lifestyle choices, and chronic disease risk prevalence among students at UNH. The expansion of YAHRSI will target UNH employees ages 18-24 who are not enrolled in a four-year degree program. This will better characterize the health status of this age group in New Hampshire. YAHRSI has already found young people age 18-24 who are at risk for obesity, dyslipidemia (i.e. high blood cholesterol), and a number of nutritional deficiencies. Several objectives of this project are to provide health information to young adults to promote wellness and risk of awareness, contribute to the limited data on young adult population and chronic disease, including biochemical, anthropometric, dietary, activity, and lifestyle, present statistics to the UNH community, and develop methodologies for other campuses and/or communities for comparisons.

Charles believes that building effective bridges between academic and applied disciplines and between technical and lay audiences is an important element of engaged scholarship. Justiceworks, a research and development institute at the University of New Hampshire, is engaged in an effort to connect members of the law enforcement and child protection communities to newly established child advocacy centers using emerging technologies. The goal of this project is to assist the law enforcement community and child protection community to work with newly established child advocacy centers by developing a model in-service educational program to deliver relevant information about child advocacy centers to relevant occupational communities. Charles hopes that this will serve the occupational communities that will be working with the newly established child advocacy centers in the state. In addition, the project has already provided an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate interns to observe how technical information may be disseminated from the University to relevant communities. Finally, Charles hopes that the project will demonstrate the feasibility and sustainability of distance education methods in providing some kinds of in-service training.

Three years ago, Udo was elected to be a member of the Educational Foundation Board and the Research Committee of the International Franchise Association (IFA). The IFA has identified case studies as a primary research vehicle of interest to its members; such studies would be made available not only to academicians through the North American Case Research Association’s (NACRA) Journal, but also through the IFA educational network. This project is a follow-up case study on the next phase of a new retail concept based on a case that was published in the NACRA Journal in 2006. The project goal is to conduct and publish research that is relevant not only to the academic world, but also to the business world. The two primary target populations for the proposed case study are (a) universities that offer business courses in entrepreneurship, marketing, strategy management and/or franchising, and (b) professional certification courses offered by the IFA. It is anticipated that this case will be published in the NACRA Journal and will be used in the above-referenced university class settings. In addition, it is anticipated that the case will be used in the IFA’s Professional Certification courses.

Ruth is leading the development of a proposal to be submitted to the National Science Foundation’s Informal Science Education program. The project will provide a local, personal context for the complex global issue of climate change, and in doing so, will serve as a template for cooperation between research universities, science centers, NGOs, and citizenry. It is her intention to capitalize on and integrate the expertise and established practices of collaborators in order to create a unique educational experience. While this project is still in the development stage, the current plans are to work with science centers in New England to develop place based climate education programs. That is, to help the centers identify location-specific climate indicators that they either already monitor or that can be observed easily by those visiting the center. They will develop protocols and training sessions for these measurements through collaboration with university researchers. Upon initial discussion with science center representatives, Ruth has determined that there are three areas within which there is interest and a need: phenology of local plant species, species distribution (birds and plants) and extreme events. This program represents development of linkages between scientific experts from UNH and NGOs, science centers and our citizenry in the New England region.

Catherine is currently working on a five-station (NH, MA, MD, MN, and DC), Hatch grant funded, applied research study to investigate how older adults identify whole grain foods. The research protocol was developed, pre-tested, and revised by collaborating researchers during early 2006. The research protocol was implemented via in-person interviews with 95 older adults in four states and the District of Columbia. Analysis of this data is currently in progress and will be completed later in 2007. Catherine will collaborate with current research colleagues to prepare a manuscript as a means of disseminating results from this study to the broader nutrition community. Prior to developing an educational intervention, she will design and complete a professional development plan to learn more about community-based participatory research methods. Lastly, she will identify and work with research collaborators, community agencies, and members of the target audience (older adults residing in New Hampshire, other northeast states, agencies/groups servicing older adults, and a group of research colleagues from other states collaborating on this project and future projects), to prepare a grant proposal to translate these research results into an education program designed to help older adults identify whole grain foods and increase consumption. The goal of this project is to translate the results of this multi-state research study into an education program for older adults to improve their ability to identify whole grain foods and, subsequently, increase their consumption of these foods.

Recently marine educators from around New England joined forces to form the New England Ocean Science Education Collaborative (NEOSEC) whose goal is to increase the ocean literacy of the general public. One proposed method of achieving this goal is to provide professional development for K-12 teachers that promote an ocean-oriented approach to teaching science standards. Research from the field of environmental education indicates that ocean science could provide an engaging context for teaching the science standards with improved student performance and achieve increased ocean literacy as well. Mark proposed to support this effort by surveying and interviewing K-12 teachers in New Hampshire to determine 1) how much they currently use ocean science as a context for teaching the science standards, 2) reasons teachers might not use ocean science as a context for teaching science such as a lack of sufficient background, and 3) teacher interest in professional development that provides training in ocean sciences and how to use ocean science to teach the science standards.

Walter has developed an initiative to offer a college level study skills course to high school students for college credit. This project forwards Walter’s research focus on self-regulated learning and the design and application of self-regulated learning interventions. The impact on the external partner is improved academic performance and increased graduation rates.

Erin’s project involves the development of a set of build-able bridge models and related materials representing different structural types with a focus on signature bridges throughout New England and in history. These models are intended to be used in New Hampshire education after school programs, grades K through 8, encouraging interest in engineering as a possible career choice.

Charlotte has provided leadership for NH’s Community Youth Asset Mapping (CYM) project. This project engages youth and adults in the collection of information about available resources regarding places to go, things to do and special opportunities in the community in the areas of art, food, counseling, health, education, housing, emergency services, employment and recreation. Community Youth Mapping also serves as a catalyst for engaging partners and influencing youth development policy, practice and resource allocation with local communities.

This is the working title for a book that Vanessa proposes to author, extending her engaged scholarship to the general public. It would explore the full socio-emotional theory of work group effectiveness and its empirical support from ten years of quantitative and qualitative research in over 14 domestic and international organizations.

The focus of this project is to evaluate the impact of a healthy lifestyle intervention program on the personal health status of employees of Cooperative Extension, a decentralized organizational model, and to evaluate the impact of such a program on health-claim costs. The program is comprised of general health screening tests over a two year period and an education program with personalized coaching.

Suzann’s focus is the conversion of nationally distributed UNH Cooperative Extension face-to-face money management programs to web-based education used by the public directly or by educators and other intermediaries to improve the financial well being of the public. Additionally, there will be deadlines for action steps, simulation tools and pre and post evaluative data accumulated over a five year period.

The overall aim of Scott’s project is to improve public awareness and understanding of the relationship between forests, climate change and the global carbon cycle. The two primary components are 1) a partnership with the Union of Concerned Scientists involved with predicting the effects of climate change, and 2) an effort to bring the science of carbon cycling and climate change into the K-12 classroom through the development of appropriate educational activities.

Alison's project was designed to help a non-profit organization, At-Risk Babies Quilts (ABCQ) with program evaluation. ABCQ provided handmade baby quilts to infants and children born AIDS/HIV positive or otherwise affected by their mother’s drug or alcohol abuse while pregnant, or to those who are abandoned. Additionally, ABC Quilts developed a youth education program combining quilt making with information aimed at preventing the behaviors that create at-risk babies. The outreach project was to evaluate the educational program and assist ABCQ with grant development. ABCQ had to cease operations due to a loss of funding; however Alison will use the skills from the Academy to work with other agencies and organizations in the Manchester area.

Richard’s research objective was to examine Citizen Police Academies (programs intended to provide citizens with a first-hand look at what rules, regulations and policies police follow). The focus was how CPAs work building the reputation of a local police department by building identity between a police department and the community. Findings from the project participant surveys are expected to assist police departments in designing their academies for maximum impact and also inform organizational theory regarding the link between information and influence in large-scale systems.

The focus of Sarah’s work in forestry is to connect a broader array of UNH resources with New Hampshire’s forest industry. The anticipated outcome of this collaboration is the development of directory of business resources available for forest industry leaders as well as improved business practices.

Kristine is working with health care providers and adolescent girls to create a girls' health database that will be accessible to the public.

An interdisciplinary team of engaged scholars is developing a discovery course to engage students in engaged schloarship as part of their training as scientists.

An interdisciplinary group developed an interdisciplinary project investigating the causes of increasing number of children categorized as obese in New Hampshire.

Kent expanded his work with distance learning to using distance learning technologies to enhance researchers efforts in outreach and engaged scholarship projects.

Peter has integrated many opportunities for his students to work with commercial farmers in mutually beneficial projects. He is planning to add an evaluation component to the projects to learn more about the effectiveness of this approach and to publish his results.

Yeping plans to determine how to connect working mathematicians/scientists with K-12 students to see if students would be more motivated to learn science and mathematics.

Judy plans to work with teachers to develop case studies that will be helpful to preservice teachers learning about teaching and learning.

Rob is adding an evaluation component to his outreach project. His students work with the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company to help the company gather and analyze information about the effectiveness of their trips and to publish his results.

Jeff works with fisherman and community stakeholders who create policies that regulate the fishing industry. Jeff is adding an evaluation component to his work to determine the effectiveness of his work.

Christine was working with the Strafford County Homemakers to create a strategic business plan. Christine is adding an evaluative component which will allow her to determine the effectiveness of this approach and to publish her results.

Rick is creating a new discovery course that involves math students in the community outreach.