UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES IN ARCTIC HOLOCENE AND MODERN CLIMATE CHANGE: THE SVALBARD REU PROJECT

The Svalbard Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program was initiated in 2003 to provide research opportunities for undergraduate students in Quaternary geology and climate change in the Norwegian Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Undergraduate geoscience students are recruited to undertake climate change research and experience the challenges and rewards of conducting high latitude research in an international location. Student research projects focus on modern climate and weather influences on glacial, fluvial, lacustrine, and fjord systems. By studying these modern processes, we seek to better interpret lacustrine sediment layers as high-resolution records of Holocene climate change. Students are given the safety and technical training necessary to travel and work safely in the remote arctic environment. Our group has developed and maintained a long-term network of increasingly sophisticated instruments monitoring the glacier-river-lake sedimentary system which forms the basis for comparing modern processes from year to year. Students work collaboratively to define research questions, develop specific testable hypotheses, and carry out fieldwork. Students complete their research projects at their home institutions during the following academic year and share their results at a spring meeting. All students participate in a pre- and post-experience assessment program that documents how the Svalbard REU project influences their attitudes toward science and potential careers in scientific research. Over 80% of our participants pursue graduate school studies in Arctic Quaternary science.