HR: 09:45h
AN: ED41C-08    [Abstracts]
TI: Institutionalizing Undergraduate Research Across a Campus: Insights from the French Creek Watershed Research Program
AU: * O'Brien, R
EM: robrien@allegheny.edu
AF: Allegheny College, Department of Geology 520 N. Main St., Meadville, PA 16335 United States
AB: We have used an NSF-DUE grant to build a long term, collaborative undergraduate research program across the natural sciences. Using a regional (2850 km2) watershed as the unit for collaboration, natural science faculty and students at Allegheny College have spent 3 years collecting, compiling, and analyzing data within the French Creek Watershed. Field data were generated during laboratory course sessions as well as student-faculty research projects. An electronic database of abstracts from senior projects ($>$150 abstracts, with keyword/author/title search capability) allows students to examine research conducted by their peers and obtain ideas for their own projects. The program website serves as a permanent global venue to disseminate background information, maps/photos, and research results. More than half of the students in introductory earth science courses collected field data and/or spatial data from the website to use in assignments. More than half of the students described their experience as "challenging" and "interesting" while less than one quarter said the experience was frustrating. Based on the success of this program, the College has expanded the vision and provided support to include the French Creek Watershed as a platform for research and teaching in the humanities and social science curriculum.
DE: 6605 Education
DE: 0400 Biogeosciences
DE: 0820 Curriculum and laboratory design
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting