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Student
Research Opportunities
Research is a fundamental part of the Albion
geology experience. Students have a variety of
opportunities to conduct independent research. The student
research experience typically includes several steps:
writing a short proposal, conducting field work and
sampling, completing laboratory analyses, writing up methods
and results, and giving an oral presentation.
All students enrolled in introductory geology courses
complete small-scale group research projects and many
advanced geology classes provide field and/or lab research
opportunities as part of the lab experience.
Upper-level geology students are encouraged to complete
independent research projects, either as semester-long
directed studies or as summer projects.
In
recent summers, several students have worked in geology
research labs at Albion or joined faculty members' field
research teams off-campus. Students can earn stipends
during the summer from Albion College's Foundation for
Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (FURSCA)
or from National Science Foundation faculty research grants.
All undergraduate research students are
given lab space in the new Lawrence D. Taylor Geology
Undergraduate Research Laboratory. Students have been
successful in getting funding for research supplies and
expenses from FURSCA or the Taylor Undergraduate Research
Fund.
Lisa Colville ('08) traveled to the White
Mountains of California with Dr. VandeVen to study the
relationship between plant distribution and climate change.
Lisa is in graduate school at the University
of Wisconsin, where she is studying dynamics and history of
the Greenland Ice Sheet.
Paul Roberts ('07) and Deanna Babcock ('06) collaborate on a
stream turbidity study of Rice Creek, located just north of
Albion. Paul and Deanna worked with Drs. Wilch and
Lincoln on this research.
Paul is working for an environmental consulting firm now and
Deanna is in graduate school in North Carolina.
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