{"id":2343,"date":"2019-10-07T16:24:31","date_gmt":"2019-10-07T16:24:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iawatercenter.wordpress.com\/?p=2343"},"modified":"2019-10-07T16:24:31","modified_gmt":"2019-10-07T16:24:31","slug":"iowa-water-center-kicks-off-a-learning-community-for-water-resources-researchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iowawatercenter.org\/iowa-water-center-kicks-off-a-learning-community-for-water-resources-researchers\/","title":{"rendered":"Iowa Water Center Kicks off a Learning Community for Water Resources Researchers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Hanna Bates, Program Coordinator for the Iowa Water Center<\/em><\/p>\n On a Tuesday afternoon in early September, the Gold Room in the Iowa State University Memorial Union was filled with a diverse audience of faculty on campus from departments such as Design, Food Sciences, Natural Resources Ecology and Management, Agronomy, English, and others. As participants trickled into the room, they realized that though many of them had never met before, they have a research topic in common – water resources.<\/p>\n This meeting was to kick off the Iowa Water Center<\/a>-led water resources research learning community, Water Scholars<\/a>. This is a year-long program funded by a CEAH-OVPR New Explorations grant<\/a> to support faculty research on campus. This program originated from a cursory directory search of campus departments conducted by IWC staff. This inventory led to the discovery that there are approximately 200 faculty members at Iowa State University whose research touches water in some way or another, but are working in different spaces both physically and topically. The goal of Water Scholars is to break down barriers between the arts and sciences to get researchers thinking outside the box and work together to create resilient research that addresses Iowa\u2019s complex water resource concerns.<\/p>\n Water Scholars will meet on a monthly basis from September to April during the academic year. Sessions will explore professional development topics, such as science communication and grant tools, through engaging presentations. Supplanted by small group work, this program will enable attendees to make use of information given by presenters as well as give them the opportunity to build relationships with others in the water resources community on campus.<\/p>\n