Example Programs
SAGE 2YC workshop participants have provided profiles of the geoscience research activities they are able to do with their students. In this collection of program profiles, the faculty have described their challenges, successes, and strategies, illustrating a wide range of possibilities for involving 2YC students in research.
Central Lakes College - Brainerd
David Kobilka has students collaboratively design experiments for a High Altitude Balloon program with help from faculty in other disciplines. The effort also includes collaboration with faculty at Bemidji State University and provides an outreach mechanism to middle school students and the public.
Central Wyoming College
Since 2003, through the Earth, Energy, Environment (E^3) program, Suzanne (Suki) Smaglik) has conducted field research with more than 25 students at the small rural college on topics ranging from biogeochemistry and microbiology to mapping the extent of a nearby alpine glacier.
Community College of Rhode Island
Karen Kortz aims for all her students to gain a better understanding of the nature of science and learn hands-on-skills through engaging in the scientific process. She extends this experience to students who are taking their only science class as well as for students who are interested in becoming geoscience majors.
Illinois Valley Community College
Mike Philips has integrated research projects into several of his courses at IVCC as a way of making geoscience relevant to his students.
Mount St. Antonio College
Becca Walker and Mark Boryta have engaged their students in a special topics class focused on research on a locally-significant project - an ongoing sedimentological investigation of Trabuco Canyon, San Juan Creek watershed, Orange County.
Northern Virginia Community College
Shelley Jaye has been able to establish a small research project involving Honors Mineralogy students in conjunction with a long-running partnership with the US Geological Survey. The project involves teaching the students how to make rock thin-sections and then complete detailed petrographic descriptions and modal analyses of crystalline basement rock cored from the Virginia Coastal Plain.
Penn State Brandywine
Laura Guertin works with students in developing important content knowledge and transferable skills through undergraduate research, regardless of their major. This helps set up the student for whatever their future path will be.
SOLARIS - El Paso Community College
Joshua Villalobos and his colleagues at EPCC engage students in research as a part of the SOLARIS project to increase the number of Hispanic students majoring in geoscience and entering the geoscience workforce.
University of Colorado at Boulder
Anne Gold describes research she and colleagues at do with 2YC students as a part of the RECCS (Research Experiences for Community College Students) internship program at CU Boulder. The program is a collaboration between two large environmental research institutions at CU Boulder - CIRES (the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences) and INSTAAR (the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research) and its Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory.
Essays
These essays were submitted by faculty members at a variety of institutions who do research with 2YC students. The faculty members were participants in several workshops run by the SAGE 2YC and InTeGrate programs. As a complement to the program descriptions above, these essays provide a window on undergraduate research efforts.
- Integrating Undergraduate Research into the Geosciences at a Two-Year College - Kaatje Kraft (Mesa Community College)
- Sustaining an Undergraduate Research Program that Serves as a Bridge Between 2YC and 4YC - Diane Doser (University of Texas - El Paso)
- Increasing Participation in the Geosciences at El Paso Community College - Joshua Villalobos (El Paso Community College)
- Developing meaningful and manageable research opportunities for community college students: lessons learned from semester #1 - Becca Walker (Mt. San Antonio College)
- Geoscience Community College Programs of Societal Relevance and Importance in the Wind River Basin and Range - Suki Smaglik (Central Wyoming College)
- Steps towards Creating an Engaging Earth Science Curriculum - Eriks Puris (Portland Community College)
Other Programs
Promoting Research Investigation in the Marine Environment (PRIME) was a summer internship program for community college students interested in developing research and outreach skills through hands-on experience working with marine scientists, practitioners, and marine informal educators. Students accepted to the program took part in internships in science research or science communication and outreach.
The CCatSea program places Oregon community college students aboard oceanographic research cruises with the goal of giving them a potentially life-changing experience that they can share with peers on their home community college campuses. In this article from Earth magazine, Dean Livelybrooks (University of Oregon) describes the history and development of the program and its effects on 2YC students.
UCORE: Catalytic Outreach and Research Experiences
UCORE was a program run by the University of Oregon that brought students completing their first year in college to the UO campus for a 10 week summer research experience. In the fall, the students returned to their home campus and conducted outreach activities to help other students succeed in science and math.