Junior students who have declared a geology major are invited to apply for any of six projects of summer research followed by term or year of independent study at the student's home institution. Sophomore students who are members of ethnic groups underrepresented in the sciences and have completed one geology course are invited to apply for five weeks of research studying human impact and natural remediation in a Pennsylvania watershed or using geophysics to delinate an early 19th century Jamaican slave village. All projects are described in more detail below. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents and have a faculty sponsor who agrees to supervise their work at the home institution. Student selection will begin Feb. 14, 1998.
Positions are contingent on funding.
Projects begin with an introduction to the overall problem and its significance. Participants then form teams of two or three students which design a smaller research project that contributes to the understanding of the overall problem. Students are encouraged to use a variety of approaches to the problem and to integrate observations with analytical techniques. Each team collects and synthesizes data for approximately four weeks. The final week is spent writing and illustrating reports on their team's research.