Undergraduate students will participate in transdisciplinary, hands-on, field-oriented research in environmental sciences, centered on small lakes around the New Jersey School of Conservation, Montclair State's field campus located in 30,000 acres of preserved forest in northwest New Jersey. The students will be housed and research based at the School of Conservation, providing an extraordinary "research immersion experience". Students will work on and rotate among the following research areas, performing field measurement and comparing them with modeling calculations: 1) surface hydrology; 2) subsurface hydrology; 3) diurnal water-quality relationships; 4) erosion and sedimentation relationships; and 5) sediment-water phosphorus dynamics. These small lakes lie in the midst of a large, protected forest; presumably, they can serve as reference sites for comparison in studies of other northeastern lakes. The small size of the lakes involved allows for intensive observation and, therefore, the project provides an excellent opportunity to assess the accuracy of various field methods and models in hydrology, geomorphology and aquatic chemistry.
Participating students will interact with each other and with faculty and graduate students serving as role models. Faculty and graduate students from MSU will travel to NJSOC daily to work with the students in their area of expertise. REU students will also travel periodically to the main campus to analyze samples using advanced instruments. Scientific endeavors will be supported by team-building, recreational and educational/professional development activities, including presentations by the students at professional conferences.
The program will inspire and enable REU scholars to pursue degrees and careers in science/engineering research and will build their confidence that such degrees/careers are desirable and feasible. By recruiting from minority-serving community colleges, we will attract the members of groups that are currently under-represented in the environmental sciences. The students will be trained in transdisciplinary field and laboratory scientific research methods in environmental science, as well as in teamwork and communication. Graduate students will also be trained in how to mentor undergraduates.
Montclair State University’s (MSU) REU program provided a valuable educational experience for 30 undergraduate students through participation in transdisciplinary, hands-on, field-oriented research in multi-disciplinary environmental studies. Program emphases included the development of project planning skills, analytical skills, creativity, critical thinking and scientific report writing. overarching goals of the program are to facilitate participants’ professional growth, stimulate the participants’ interests in pursuing Earth Science as a future career, and instill confidence that such a degree/career is both desirable and feasible. The goals were supported by team-building and recreational activities and educational/professional development exercises. The MSU REU program had successfully served three cohorts of REU scholars in summer 2011, 2012 and 2013 and met recruitment goals by attracting under-represented applicants and female applicants. During the past three years, the program received a total of 725 applications from 36 different states in all parts of the U.S. including Puerto Rico. The applicants were highly qualified with strong academic records and many with previous research experiences. The gender distribution was 435 females (60%) and 290 males (40%). Among the self-identified applicants, 14%were self-identified as under-represented minorities, 17 as African American, 5 as American Indian/Alaskan Native, 37 as Hispanic or Latino, and 44 selected others/multiracial/multi-ethnic. Among the 30 selected REU fellows who completed the program including 16 females (53%) and 14 males (47%) from eight states (CA, NJ, NY, OH, PA, PR, TX, VA), with 11 students (37%) self identified as underrepresented minorities, 9 Hispanic or Latino (30%) and 2 African American (7%). The participants’ home institutions ranged from two-year community colleges to small liberal art colleges to public four-year university to master granting institutes to Ph.D. granting institutes. Students’ demographics ranged from rising sophomore to seniors to return students/veterans. The MSU REU program has successfully achieve the program goal by retaining students in Earth Science. Evidence of such success was demonstrated from the status of the program alumni. The program staff kept contacts with students via emails, Facebook, and personal communications. Several students continued working with their research mentors after the completion of the REU programs. Several past program participants have graduated from undergraduate programs and continued their graduate studies in Earth Science. Others have begun their careers in private sectors. Ancillary benefits of this program included strengthening of relationships between science faculty at Montclair State University and regional community colleges that can serve to channel more students into earth science bachelor’s degree programs; and expansion and improvement of the research capabilities of the New Jersey School of Conservation (NJSOC), and expanded background data on rivers and its watershed in the Northern New Jersey. The MSU REU program has been very productive in presenting the research findings to the professional communities. The MSU REU program delivered a total of 41 presentations at both regional and national professional meetings including the American Geophysical Union, American Geographer, Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section of Geological Society of America, the 2014 Joint Aquatic Sciences Meeting, NJ Academy of Science, New York University Undergraduate Student Conference, the Metropolitan Association of College and University Biologists, Passaic River Symposium, Montclair State University Student Research Symposium, etc. Additionally, the research projects resulted in three manuscripts that are under various stages of preparation.
