AN EARLY UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH EXPERIENCE FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS: BENEFITS, CHALLENGES, AND LESSONS LEARNED FROM FACULTY AND STUDENTS

The benefits of research experiences for undergraduate (REU) programs are well-documented in the literature, but a common observation among community college faculty is that first and second-year geoscience students at 2-year colleges generally lack the coursework, field, and lab experience necessary for them to compete with junior and senior-level students for REU programs. In spring 2012, we began offering a selective, independent study course to act as an early-REU program for our interested geoscience students at Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA. Students have been working on an analysis of Trabuco Creek, a tributary in the San Juan Creek watershed in Orange County, including stream and beach profiling, bedrock geology mapping, and sediment sampling and analysis. In the second semester of the project, we adopted a peer instruction model in which returning students train new students in field and lab techniques. As part of their public presentation requirement, students have presented posters at the AGU annual meeting, GSA Cordilleran Section meeting, and several on-campus events. We will report on the evolution of project goals and structure over the course of 3 semesters, including changes in project scope; nature and frequency of faculty-student interaction; field and laboratory methods utilized; and assessment strategies. We will also address several challenges faced by participating students and faculty, including administrative barriers (liability; access to equipment and work space; limits on course repeatability; absence of compensation for faculty); pedagogical concerns (determining appropriate levels of guidance, defining participant roles, assessing student work); and student issues (managing time effectively; dividing labor equitably among team members; plotting and interpreting data), as well as proposed solutions to these problems. Despite these challenges, students who have taken part in the program recognize the benefits of conducting independent research on their skill set, geoscience content knowledge, and confidence in choice of major.