This project will provide a summer's research experience for six undergraduate geology majors. Of the participants, two will come from schools that are members of two consortia of which Furman University is a member or from schools within the states of South Carolina, Georgia, North Carolina, and Virginia. All schools involved are smaller undergraduate schools with strong programs in geology. Senior personnel involved include faculty from the geology department at Furman University and research geologists at the Savannah River Site, a nuclear research and production facility run for the Department of Energy by the Westinghouse Savannah River Company. The participants will be involved in an intensive 8-week research effort with three of the students located on the Furman Campus and three others located at the Savannah River Site, Aiken, S.C. As the summer progresses, the students will be encouraged to become increasingly more independent. The goal of each effort will be to produce valid verifiable results that will contribute to the body of knowledge in geology. The overall goal of the program will be educating the students to understand the process of research and instilling in them an excitement about the field of geological research that will encourage them to continue on to graduate study.
