AN INITIAL ASSESSMENT OF THE STRATEGIES FOR IMPLEMENTING AN INTEGRATED FIELD- AND LAB-BASED UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH EXPERIENCE IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS OF NW ARIZONA

As part of an NSF REU collaboration investigating the processes that preceded and followed eruption of the 18.8 Ma Peach Spring Tuff, we recently completed the first of a three year project in the southern Black Mountains of NW Arizona. Our approach is to provide this opportunity to 10 undergraduates/year from 10 different schools who might not otherwise have opportunities to conduct ambitious research and who are largely field inexperienced. Education goals of this project include enhancing communication, general geoscience knowledge, and research skills and to build collaborative experiences and relationships. To achieve these goals, students undertake a 10 day field season during winter break that introduces them to the field area and overarching research questions; this session includes a 1-week course, Whole Lava Love (WLL; taught by C.A. Ferguson, AZ Geol. Survey), aimed at teaching students field methods. During the following spring at their home institutions, students work with project leaders to develop a research question and methodology. Students then perform two weeks of field work in May and spend a month at Mercyhurst (MU) or Vanderbilt (VU) universities answering their research questions; at a subsequent conference at VU, students report their findings and place their projects back into the context of the overarching project-level questions, culminating in GSA abstracts and posters. Students are formally and informally assessed by project leaders along the way. Preliminary assessment data indicates the split field season helped students digest the project’s research objectives and develop individual projects. Critical for student success in the field was WLL; students commented that without WLL, they would have been hampered in their abilities to successfully complete their field work. Having students take time to reflect on their projects in the field and at the VU conference allowed leaders to assess student learning and gave students an opportunity to gauge their own progress. To date, our experience supports the view that intense undergraduate field experiences strongly shape students’ geoscience skillsets and knowledge bases and that the largest degrees of student success occur in a supportive and structured environment that includes initial direction and regular feedback from leaders.