HR: 0800h
AN: ED31A-1198    [Abstracts]
TI: Summer Undergraduate Research Experiences Fellowships in Geosciences: Outcomes from NSF-REU Support to the Council on Undergraduate Research
AU: * Fox, L K
EM: lkfox@pacific.edu
AF: University of the Pacific, Department of Geosciences 3601 Pacific Aveune, Stockton, CA 95211 United States
AU: Singer, J
EM: singerjk@buffalostate.edu
AF: SUNY-Buffalo State, Department of Earth Sciences 1300 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, NY 14222 United States
AU: Woodrow, D
EM: cardonwoodr@comcast.net
AF: Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geoscience Department, Genevea, NY 14456 United States
AU: Ryan, J G
EM: ryan@shell.cas.usf.edu
AF: University of South Florida, Department of Geology 4202 East Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620 United States
AB: The Geosciences Division of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR) was supported from 1996 to 2000 by the NSF-REU program. In contrast to the traditional REU model where groups of students conduct independent research projects designed around a common or unifying theme at a single institution or research lab, CUR's summer program was designed to support student/faculty teams to conduct 10-week research project at their home institution. This NSF award supplemented a larger CUR program for all the science, engineering, math, and computer sciences, and significantly increased the funding success in the geosciences division of CUR. During the three years of funding, 18 summer fellowships were awarded from the NSF grant and six additional fellowships were awarded by CUR as a match to the grant. The second part of the NSF award involved the organization of undergraduate poster sessions at the sectional meetings of the GSA and provided travel funds for the CUR Geoscience Councilors who organized the sessions. Nearly all of the students who received awards under the NSF grant presented a poster or gave a talk at one of these GSA meetings. The division also embarked upon an effort to raise corporate and foundation support to sustain the summer award program, but these efforts failed to identify long-term support. Since 2000, more institutions have initiated their own summer research programs and CUR just recently ended its summer fellowships. This poster will highlight the research that resulted from NSF support, perspectives on the value of summer research experiences for students, how this program served as a model for the integration of teaching and research at the undergraduate level, and a look forward as a growing number of institutions recognize the need to provide summer research support for students and their faculty mentors.
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0825 Teaching methods
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005