PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – The Minority Achievement, Creativity and High Ability (MACH-III) Center at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) will join the university’s Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences, effective March 1. The MACH-III transition to the College of Arts and Sciences will support the Center’s mission to expand multidisciplinary research and launch a full-scale Science Innovation Lab focused on P-12 school outreach to underserved student populations.
Fred A. Bonner II, Ed.D.
“Transitioning the MACH-III Center from the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education to the Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences will open windows of new opportunities for collaboration and innovative projects across myriad disciplines and fields,” said MACH-III Executive Director and Chief Scientist, Fred A. Bonner II, Ed.D.
Under Bonner’s leadership for the past six years, the Center’s nationally and internationally focused scholarship has been multidisciplinary in focus. It currently encompasses key initiatives that include several disciplines (math, chemistry, biology, and physics) within the College of Arts & Sciences. With a strong record of securing extramural funding, including numerous grants with the National Science Foundation (NSF) as well as Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), the MACH-III Center will leverage additional science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) grants, including funding for the increasingly integrated suite of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM) learning innovations.
Most noteworthy in the MACH-III Center’s move to the College of Arts & Sciences is the unique opportunity to develop a fully functioning Science Innovation Lab that will serve as an incubator for innovative P-12 outreach projects. Located in PVAMU’s Austin Greaux Chemical Engineering Building, the Lab is currently funded through the Texas A&M University System (TAMUS) Chancellor’s Research Initiative (CRI).
Dorie J. Gilbert, Ph.D.
Faculty will work synergistically with the MACH-III Center to provide P-12 students direct access to state-of-the-art scientific instruments, hands-on demonstrations, and open-house events via weekend academies and summer camp initiatives. The Lab will also serve as a pre-professional training space for PVAMU students interested in becoming science and math teachers.
“The addition of the MACH-III Center and its Science Innovation Lab bolsters the College’s increased emphasis on community engagement and P-12 outreach. This partnership opens new opportunities to broaden mutual efforts to expose underserved young learners to activities that spark career interests in the STEM-related disciplines,” said Dorie J. Gilbert, Ph.D., dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “This is a great opportunity for our science and math faculty to bring several existing summer camps and other outreach activities under one umbrella collaboratively with the MACH-III Center.”
In addition to P-12 projects, the Lab will:
- Serve as an ‘incubator’ space for multidisciplinary collaborations among PVAMU faculty;
- Strengthen grant proposal (NSF, NIH, etc.) submissions by allowing principal investigators to utilize the Lab as a space for key theory-to-practice applications;
- Set the MACH-III Center and College of Arts & Sciences apart from peer institutions with similarly constituted Centers.
“I am excited about the Science Innovation Laboratory, which will serve as a critical component of the MACH-III Center. The potential for cutting-edge projects that will allow both P-12 and postsecondary administrators, faculty, and students to engage theory-to-practice applications is truly a ‘game-changer,’” said Bonner.
Bonner’s primary appointment will transition to the Marvin D. and June Samuel Brailsford College of Arts and Sciences; however, he will maintain a joint appointment as a professor and endowed chair in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling in the Whitlowe R. Green College of Education.
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