The Keck Geology Consortium will offer summer research experiences for 51 undergraduates, building on 23 years of successful programming. Students will be recruited from the 18 consortium schools, and 30% of participants will be from non-Consortium institutions. Summer research projects will be continued in the following academic year as independent study projects, culminating at Keck Annual Research Symposium in the spring. Students will publish short contributions in the annual proceedings volume and will be encouraged to present their work at regional and national disciplinary meetings. The projects involve a mix of field and laboratory research experiences that will make meaningful scientific contributions in the areas of structural geology, paleontology and paleoecology, and paleoclimatology as well as igneous and metamorphic petrology, sedimentology and stratigraphy, volcanology, geomorphology and geoarchaeology. The yearlong Keck Consortium program enhances students? scientific and geoscience research skills and provides a robust scientific experience.
The Keck Geology Consortium is a multi-college collaboration focused on enriching undergraduate education through development of high-quality research experiences. The Consortium has been a fundamental component of the undergraduate research landscape over the last twenty-four years, supporting 1201 undergraduate students (1282 slots, 81 repeats) from over 100 schools across the nation. The 146 projects sponsored by the Consortium have involved over 138 faculty (445 faculty positions overall, many faculty are repeat participants) representing over 50 different colleges, universities, governmental agencies, and businesses. In addition to research projects, the Consortium program includes the annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology and publication of a Symposium proceedings volume. The Keck Geology Consortium provides a unique and robust, year-long undergraduate research experience that extends from the initial aspects of project design, to field and laboratory data collection, analysis and the final, culminating presentation of research results to the broader scientific community (de Wet et al., 2009). This past year the Keck Geology Consortium ran nine projects for 55 total undergraduate students. These projects were, 1. Study Formation of basement-involved foreland arches: Integrated structural and seismological research in the Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming., 2. Geomorphologic and paleoenvironmental change in Glacier National Park, Montana, 3. Pluton-Wallrock Interactions in the Sequoia Region: Evaluating Crustal Contamination in the Early Sierran Arc in California, 4. Lake Hovsgol: An Integrative Natural Laboratory for Quaternary Tectonics, Glaciation, and Climate Change in Northern Mongolia, 5. Early Holocene Edifice Failure and Sector Collapse of Volcan Baru, Panama, 6. Interdisciplinary studies in the Critical Zone, Boulder Creek catchment, Front Range, Colorado, 7. Sediment Dynamics & Environments in the lower Connecticut River, 8. Exploring the Proterozoic Big Sky Orogeny in Southwest Montana, and 9. Eocene Tectonic Evolution of the Teton Range, Wyoming. On each of the nine projects listed above, students completed field work during the summer of 2010 then continued their research during the academic year with a faculty mentor at their home institutions. As a capstone experience, each student wrote a project report summarizing their research and gave presentations to the academic community at the annual Keck Geology Consortium Symposium, this year held at Union College in New York. In addition to specific scientific outcomes (which are quite impressive indeed and can be found at our website, keckgeology.org) students develop the confidence that they can carry out a major research endeavor from hypothesis formation, to research design through summary of results. Results from alumni surveys indicate that the Keck experience enhances fundamental scientific and geoscience skills, but also impacts student enthusiasm for science. The assessment results indicate that the preparation students receive in their Keck undergraduate research experiences translates into skills relevant for their careers. The Keck Consortium is devoted to meeting the growing need in the geoscience community for high-quality largely field based undergraduate research experiences. Publications From the 2010-2011 Program *Bedame, M., Wojtal, S., Lowey, S., Lackey, J.,S., and Wooden, J., 2010, Zircon ages and trace element compositins link Frys Point Granite and magmatization in the Sequoia pendant, Sequoia National Park: Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Annual GSA Meeting, *Hensley, S., Loewy, S., Lackey, J.S., 2010, Temporal variations in pluton-wallrock interactions in the Sierran arc: Geological Society of America Program with Abstracts, 2010 Denver GSA Annual Meeting (October 31-November 3, 2010). *Holland, J., Surpless, B., Lackey, J.S., Loewy, S., and wooden, J., 2010, Intrusive history of the Ash Mountain complex, Sequoia National Park: Geological Society of America Program with Abstracts, 2010 Denver GSA Annual Meeting (October 31-November 3, 2010). *Starnes, J., Klemetti, E., Lackey, J.S., Lowey, S., and Wooden, J., 2010, New U-Pb Shrimp-RG zircon ages of Mineral King roof pendant rhyolite units revise the volcanic history of the Sierra Nevada, California: Geological Society of America Program with Abstracts, 2010 Denver GSA Annual Meeting (October 31-November 3, 2010).
