With heavy teaching loads of about 18 contact hours per week and other college responsibilities, science faculty in undergraduate institutions struggle to find the time required to carry out publishable research. To address this problem, Professor Rugutt and a consortium [1] of undergraduate institutions in USA and Africa have identified a focused multidisciplinary research project that will strengthen STEM education. The participating institutions in the US-Africa consortium include Missouri State University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the University of Kabianga. The theme of the collaborative project is entitled, �Bioassay-Guided Isolation of Novel Bioactive Compounds Similar to Drugs already Approved by FDA�. The guided inquiry project serves as a cross cultural conduit for spreading the joys of science. All experiments have been developed using several research guidelines including �Council on Undergraduate Research Guidelines� and ACS protocols. Undergraduate students play an integral part in the project. To stimulate students' interests, we have chosen projects that relate to societal needs (e.g., HIV, prostate cancer, diabetes, and tuberculosis). We treasure the opportunity to train future scientists and we want to give them the opportunity to �feel good� (the �Aha!� moment) about dealing with real life issues such as discovering new prostate cancer drugs. We have found that underrepresented students have much interest in prostate cancer as they may have a family member affected by the disease. Through natural products research, students in STEM disciplines learn important techniques such extraction, synthesis, characterization, writing journal articles, and teamwork. Thus far, we have screened 75 synthetic and pure natural products against DU145, androgen-unresponsive (androgen-independent) human prostate cancer cells. Notable achivements will be highlighted in this NSF-funded symposium.References:  1  ). Rugutt et al.  US-Africa Collaboration in Guided Inquiry Synthesis and Characterization of the �Frustrated� Amino Acid-Based Calixarene Molecules. Chem. Educator 18, 1�8, 2013

US-Africa collaboration in infusing undergraduate chemistry courses with guided inquiry and research-based  green nanoscience experiments

246th National Meeting (2013)

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