ARECIBO, P.R. -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded nearly $600,000 to Arecibo Observatory and the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo to establish a three-year program to provide Hispanic students on the island with experience in conducting scientific research.

The program is aimed at helping address the national need to increase the number of Hispanics making careers in the geosciences, including earth, atmospheric and ocean sciences, says Robert Brown, director of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), which manages the observatory, the world's largest and most sensitive single-dish radio telescope.

The new program, he says, will enable participating high school students and their teachers, and undergraduate students in northwest Puerto Rico, to receive first-hand experience in research in the geosciences.

NAIC, a national research center, is operated by Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., under a cooperative agreement with the NSF.

The research program will be organized by the Arecibo Geoscience Diversity Program, a newly formed initiative of the observatory and the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo (UPRA). "Participants will gain first-hand experience in conducting scientific research by using the Arecibo radio telescope and laboratory facilities at UPRA," says José Alonso, educational officer at the observatory.

The program will target students and their teachers from 15 high schools in the Arecibo School District and undergraduate science majors at UPRA. Five schools will participate each year, with each school providing four students and a teacher. UPRA will send eight students each year.

"Through the interaction of high school students, teachers and UPRA undergraduates, a bridging path will be established that will help increase the number of students reaching the college level and ultimately graduating," Alonso says.The program will be split into a 10-day summer institute at the observatory, to introduce content and develop research skills; a 16-day "geoscience academy" during the school year for field measurements and data analysis; and a "geoscience congress" at which participants will present their research projects.

Participants will be divided into two groups: One will study altitude and temperature variations in the upper atmosphere using the observatory's 305-meter radio telescope; the other will study the karst topography of the Caño Tiburones tropical wetland and will use UPRA facilities to design and execute an environmental monitoring program.

At the end of three years, says Alonso, the program will have provided hands-on research experience in the geosciences to 60 high school students, 15 teachers and 24 undergraduates.

The observatory already hosts a 10-week summer student program for at least six students and a teacher from Puerto Rico. The students work with staff scientists on projects related to ongoing research or instrumentation development. The students are exposed to research in atmospheric science, radio astronomy and planetary radio astronomy.