SCIENCE FOR THE COMMON GOOD: AN UNDERGRADUATE GEOSCIENCE PROGRAM PARTNERS WITH WATERSHED DISTRICTS IN THE TWIN CITIES METRO AREA

We share two examples of successful partnerships between a geoscience program at the University of St. Thomas, two local Watershed Districts, and an environmental research center in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area. Our first example is an ongoing effort to explore historical nutrient loading in metro area lakes to help watershed managers prioritize their efforts. We collaborated with scientists from the St. Croix Watershed Research Station to collect and analyze sediment cores from five lakes in two watersheds. We applied sedimentary geochemistry and micropaleontology to reconstruct lake histories that span the last few centuries and include the period of intensive European settlement in the region (ca. 1860 – 1880) which resulted in significant land-use changes and had correspondingly large impacts on lakes that show up clearly in the cores. Since 2009, four undergraduate students have worked closely with one of us on these projects as individual research projects with all presenting their work to watershed board members and scientific conferences ranging from local to national-level.

During Spring 2017, we extended the partnership to a course-based research experience. Students enrolled in an environmental science capstone course at UST worked in teams on several projects of interest to the Comfort Lake Forest Lake Watershed District. We designed the course to provide students a realistic client/consultant experience, giving them critical professional and technical skills that will support their future career growth. Projects included a groundwater management plan in a restored wetland near an interstate highway, an investigation of the relationship between lake bed sediment composition of a lake impaired by invasive aquatic plants, and an investigation of the sources of phosphorus loading on a residential lake.

Two important outcomes of this partnership are that: 1) Students contribute to resolving real environmental problems by providing useful data to watershed districts. Their work is strongly aligned with our university and program missions; and 2) students build field and laboratory skills that are relevant to geological and environmental consulting firms and potential graduate advisors.