ENGAGING UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THROUGH FIELD-BASED INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH: TRIAGING ROCK DECAY FOR NATIVE AMERICAN ROCK ART CONSERVATION

An ongoing geographic research project at Mesa Community College has engaged over 150 students in the high impact practice of undergraduate research involving fieldwork on rock decay, Native American rock art, and National Park Service (NPS) cultural resource management. The goal of this research is to both provide the NPS an affordable means to assess the condition of important cultural and natural resources, while at the same time engaging undergraduate students in geoscience curriculum. Additional partnerships with Arizona State University and University of Colorado Denver, allowed an additional 1000 students to utilize collected data for further geoscience education and resource conservation. Geoscience education is achieved through active participation in the field and in the classroom. Students gather primary data, analyze those data, and learn basic research skills and practices. The NPS obtains condition assessment records from enthusiastic volunteers for low cost. The faculty receives opportunity to engage in scholarly work that enhances discipline research, teaching, and learning. Funding from the National Science Foundation DUE CCLI/TUES program allowed faculty to demonstrate to administration and the community the capability of first and second year students to contribute to the sciences and how to continue research opportunities that greatly impact and benefit the learning process while strengthening the teaching process.