Program Description

For summer programs, our objective is to create a cohort of students and faculty to research the geology, biology, hydrology and chemistry of watersheds. Our "home-base" will be the watershed of the College of William and Mary, which includes numerous landscape elements such as lakes, streams, forested uplands, and developed regions.

Over the 10-week summer program, participants will live together on the College of William and Mary campus and work on projects at the new Keck Environmental Field Laboratory. Participants will identify a faculty mentor in the first week of the program. Daily meetings with mentors will help shape and refine specific research projects within environmental disciplines. Weekly, interdisciplinary meetings with faculty will allow the research cohort to present their findings across disciplines, receive feedback from all program participants, and discuss project directions. At the end of the summer program, students will give oral presentations of the results of their work in conference format where all faculty will be invited to attend. Over the subsequent academic year, students will work from their home institution to develop papers with project mentors for scientific publication as appropriate. Selected students will travel to regional conferences to make poster presentations of their research.