STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH IN SOLITARY FACULTY GEOLOGY PROGRAMS

In today’s developing workforce, a bachelor’s degree is often considered a minimum requirement. However, when hiring managers evaluate the resumes of new graduates, with a B.S. or B.A., it is not necessarily the degree that sets one candidate apart from another. Many factors can intrigue a potential employer, especially those extra-curricular activities related to a certain discipline or career choice. One such activity is undergraduate research. Many Geology programs require some degree of undergraduate research, from original, senior thesis projects to group projects associated with upper-division courses. However, these may also be optional projects of which only a few students may take advantage. Optional undergraduate research is generally a case of opportunity and availability. Opportunities arrive through many different avenues, and the availability of the student as well as the research advisor is the foremost ingredient for success. At large, research-geared institutions, one would assume that opportunities for undergraduate research are plentiful and varied. Yet, at smaller institutions, where teaching demands are greater, those chances may be few and far between. In the case of single-faculty Geology programs, that is challenge is amplified. Our project intends to recognize those single-faculty programs that have developed successful research and their methodology for doing so, as well as identify the needs and desires of the broader groups of majors at those institutions. We propose that while single-faculty programs are less-equipped to provide a broad range of opportunities to large numbers of students, it can and is being done. Our project will also attempt to ascertain student attitudes about undergraduate research, whether or not they feel important and available, and their level of preparedness to complete it. Our survey will be distributed in response to the faculty advisors research responses who are conducting a related study. The survey will be sent out to faculty respondents to distribute to their majors, beginning at the start of the Fall 2010 semester. Results will be compiled and final analysis will be conducted during the Spring 2011 semester. We anticipate using the Annual meeting of the Geological Society of America to solicit survey participants and faculty referrals.