Enhancement of Undergraduate Field and Laboratory Research Experiences In Lake and Wetland Studies

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This project supports an undergraduate research initiative in Lake and Wetland Studies within the Geology Department. New equipment enhances undergraduate field and laboratory research experiences in two new courses (Coastal and Wetland Geology, Modern Sediments) and several existing courses. The project provides a vibracoring rig, a rapid grain size analysis system (settling tube), a video core logging system, and two water level float recorders. This equipment is being used to introduce focused Lake Champlain Basin research problems into the undergraduate curriculum at all levels. For example, the Modern Sediments course is aimed at advanced undergraduates and should prove to be a springboard to senior research for many of them. This course has the format of a lab seminar course. The course meets once a week for 3 hours. Initial sessions focus on background reading and discussion directed toward the solving of a particular research problem. The remainder of the course is entirely made up of stating the problem and solving it through fieldwork and laboratory analysis with the class working together as a whole. Students collect cores and water-level data, perform grain size analysis, video-log the cores, and describe the Holocene evolution of lakeshore wetlands and the Champlain Basin. The ultimate goal of the course is to produce original scientific research worthy of presentation at a professional meeting. Introductory level courses, such as Oceanography, can benefit as well; the class participates in the taking of a sediment core and some very basic facies analysis to illustrate concepts of environmental change and basic stratigraphy, providing some insight into how scientists have deciphered the evolution of the ocean basins and large lakes such as Lake Champlain.