CHANCE: Undergraduate Research on the Sustainability of the Danube Delta

Please the description and schedule of the Virtual Part in the enclosed file entitled: CHANCE Romania Course Calendar (pre-field) Online Course, Spring 2023. CHANCE, an award-winning Pennsylvania State University (USA) international environmental education program, is an academic adventure both in, and out of, the field. It is actually a set of two courses taken sequentially, but as a unit. The first is an online course taken during a late spring semester. The second is a summer field research course (practicum) which provides real-life and hands-on international and interdisciplinary research focused on a sustainability issue and conservation experiences.

Application Deadline

Virtual Part starting date 2023-03-15

Virtual Part closing date 2023-04-26

Total student workload 162

Specific field of studies Humanities and social sciences applied to environmental research

Pre-requisite for selection CV Motivation Letter

Academic pre-requisites for applicants Students are required to have a working comprehension of English to follow the lectures, and to be able to communicate both orally and in the written form. Students also must have an interest in field research which can consist of long days and teamwork. No discipline entry requirements. This course is addressed to students with a background in natural sciences, as well as in humanities and social sciences applied to environmental research.

Physical Part starting date 2023-07-03

Physical Part Description While students are in Romania, transnational team members will be assigned a CURE related to a select water issue affecting the Danube Delta. Over the course of a two-week period, each team will develop their scientific research laboratory skills relevant to their CURE, design a unique experiment, then head out to the field and to state-of-the-art research laboratories to carry out their experimental work. Throughout all stages of their research, students will be mentored (face-to face) by leading scientists who are engaged in research in their selected area. When students are not working in the field or analysing their data, they will have ample opportunities to learn more about the economic, environmental, social, cultural, and political factors that contribute to sustainability challenges facing the Danube River system through a series of professional lectures, guided tours, one-on-one meetings with Romanian government and non-governmental stakeholders and U.S. Embassy of Bucharest officials, and panel discussions with experts. At the end of their CURE experience, each research team will present their work to invited university of Bucharest, Penn State, and CIVIS partner institutions, including administrators, scientists, leaders, faculty and students, as well as Romanian U.S. and EU external government and non-government stakeholders via participation in the 2023 CHANCE Romania Undergraduate Research Symposium to be held at the Faculty of Biology, University of Bucharest.

Physical Part closing date 2023-07-07

Language level required B2

Field of studies related to the course Social Science and Humanities Environment and Agriculture Natural Sciences and Mathematics Environmental Sciences Urbanism and Geography

Course location Bucharest, Romania and Sfântu Gheorghe Village (Tulcea), Romania (Sfântu Gheorghe Marine and Fluvial Research Station https://unibuc.ro/cercetare/infrastructura/platforme-de-cercetare/statiunea-de-cercetari-de-la-sfantu-gheorghe/?lang=en)

Course language English