9322243 Karlstrom The goal of this project is to develop a sustainable undergraduate research program at the University of New Mexico (UNM). We will be making research an integral part of our undergraduate program with a strong emphasis upon recruiting women and minorities into the sciences. The proposal has two related components. First, Junior and Senior geology majors will conduct geologic research in conjunction with a faculty mentor. Second, Hispanic and American Indian students will be offered jobs by faculty mentors in support of ongoing research; these jobs will lead towards development of more independent undergraduate research projects. Our experience from past REU projects is that undergraduates are enthusiastic about solving research problems, but they need this type of close supervision in order to conduct and complete high quality research. The unifying concept is to integrate more undergraduate students into existing interactive departmental research programs. These include structural geology and tectonics, paleomagnetism, basin studies, enviornmental geology, planetary sciences and volcanology. New Mexico is an ideal site for field-based research and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences has excellent analytical facilities to support undergraduate research. Further, the University of New Mexico has large numbers of Hispanic and Native American students and has made a major commitment to minority education. Nevertheless, minorities are still under represented in the sciences. We feel that an REU site grant can have a major impact in fostering undergraduate research and education in general, and in recruiting minorities into the earth sciences.
