UNDERGRADUATES ON SHIPS: OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY’S R/V OCEANUS AND THE NSF RESEARCH EXPERIENCES FOR UNDERGRADUATES PROGRAM

Three undergraduate women from Portland State University, Colby College, and the University of Puerto Rico were able to participate in marine geological science research through the partnerships of Oregon State University’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science Research Experience for Undergraduates (CEOAS REU) program with the Oceangoing Research Vessel Program, the CEOAS Dean’s Fund for Innovation and the Ken and Donna Barrow Fund. We sailed for five days on the R/V Oceanus, gathering sub-bottom imaging data, and assisting in the collection and processing of sediment cores from the Northeastern Pacific Ocean. Once on land, we helped design and execute research projects focused on regional environmental history using the cores and other shipboard data collected. In providing this experience, these organizations faced multiple hurdles, as ship time is expensive, and research requires a considerable personal and professional time commitment on the part of students and faculty. Many NSF-funded REU programs provide students with paid eight-to-ten week summer internship experiences, but due to time constraints it can be difficult to integrate field experience with laboratory analysis and data interpretation. The opportunity to go to sea before the summer research experience began enabled us as REU students to participate in fieldwork and data collection as well as sample analysis and interpretation. This gives us context to the data we are using in our own undergraduate research projects, which provides us with a more complete picture of what it is like to conduct real-world research.