SUCCESSES OF THE BADLANDS WORKING GROUP AT SRU FOR EARLY UNDERGRADUATES

The Badlands Working Group (BWG) at Slippery Rock University immerses undergraduates into multidisciplinary research that becomes a pivotal experience in selecting a major or charting a career. Since 1999, nearly forty students have assembled more than 700 student-field-days on the windswept prairie and rugged ‘castles' of the White River Badlands. The group has a fine track record with proposing research, securing funding, safe expeditions, subsequent investigations, and disseminating outcomes. BWG alumni regularly achieve success including graduate studies and research recognitions. Several aspects of our initiative poise these successes. Peer-mentoring has been the hallmark of our pedagogy. Once established, BWG alumni have consistently returned as veterans to mentor younger students on their first expedition. The veterans lead by example and direct oversight. Novices report that engagement with research is less intimidating when a peer provides guidance because there are fewer social barriers and a narrower knowledge gap than that between students and faculty. Often times, issues involving health concerns, personality conflicts, and camp logistics are expediently resolved by this less threatening relationship, while group moral is better maintained overall when faculty guidance is not regularly required. Much of the science has revolved around describing Holocene paleosols, whose sampling requires slow excavation with pick and shovel. This labor-intensive nature has favored involvement of seven to twelve students. Thus, novices can be immediately put to useful role, while veterans pursue field descriptions, site selections, and formulation of questions. When first and second year students remain active with the group during subsequent years, their perspectives deepen until they possess literature and field familiarity so that they can draft proposals for the approaching year's investigation. The promise of a pending expedition is enticing to early college students who have impressed the faculty in classes or who are interested in exploring unfamiliar disciplines. We have woven art, literature and history into each expedition to make a challenging expedition savory and memorable. Alumni report multi-dimensional personal growth – enhanced curiosity, endurance, confidence and insight.