INVOLVING UNDERGRADUATES IN FACULTY RESEARCH IN THE GEOSPATIAL SCIENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, FAYETTEVILLE: THE UGRO AND SUMMER REU PROGRAMS AT NORTHWEST ARKANSAS COMMUNITY COLLEGE AND THE UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS, PINE BLUFF

The Department of Geosciences at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville (UAF), in partnership with North West Arkansas Community College (NWACC) and the University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff (UAPB), has developed a program to include undergraduate students from NWACC and UAPB in supervised research under the mentorship of UAF faculty. The emphasis is on geospatial research. The funding is provided by the Opportunity to Enhance Diversity in the Geosciences Program of the Directorate of Geosciences of the National Science Foundation. As part of the program, two students from UAPB participated in a summer research experience for undergraduates on the island of Dominica in 2007 to constrain ground deformation in response to volcanic or tectonic processes. These students also spent 4 weeks in Fayetteville interpreting their results. Students at NWACC are working with UAF faculty during the 2007-2008 academic year within the uGRO program (undergraduate geoscience research opportunities). For the fall semester, NWACC students received hands-on training in the field and in the classroom on the collection, manipulation, and interpretation of geospatial data from northwest Arkansas. During spring semester 2007-2008, the uGRO students will use geospatial data to examine geoscience processes, such as active volcanism and tectonics in the circum-Caribbean and ground subsidence due to aquifer withdrawal in central Arkansas.