Beloit and the Keck Geology Consortium

Keck Geology Consortium

Beloit is one of the original twelve members of the Keck Geology Consortium (Amherst, Carleton, Colorado College, Franklin & Marshall, Pomona, Smith, Trinity University, Washington & Lee University, Whitman, Williams, and Wooster are the others). The Keck Geology Consortium was recently expanded and now includes 18 liberal arts geology programs. Beloit students participate in Keck research almost every year, and professors are also involved. One of the post-fieldwork highlights is the annual Symposium, which gives each student a place to present their research and discuss it with other students and professors from other schools around the country. The Symposium is hosted on a rotating basis by the member colleges; Beloit was the location of the 2003 Keck Symposium.

Symposia aren't all about lectures! View pictures from the fieldtrip to Southern Wisconsin.

Description of Keck, adapted from their website at http://www.keckgeology.org/:

The Keck Geology Consortium is a multi-college collaboration focused on enriching undergraduate education through development of high-quality research experiences. The Consortium has been a fundamental component of the undergraduate-research landscape over the last seventeen years, supporting 909 undergraduate students from eighty-three schools across the nation. The 103 projects sponsored by the Consortium to date have involved 115 faculty representing forty-six different colleges, universities, governmental agencies, and businesses (329 faculty positions overall, many faculty are repeat participants). In addition to research projects, the Consortium program includes the annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology. For the students, the symposium is a place to present research results in an environment that emphasizes the importance of communication and builds self-confidence. For the faculty, the symposium is an opportunity to interact and share information with each other, stimulating development of new collaborations and innovative programs.

The Consortium establishes its program priorities based on the educational philosophies of the member colleges: dedication to excellence in undergraduate education, offering students comprehensive and rigorous educational opportunities that promote intellectual growth, integrity, responsibility, and a sense of both individuality and membership in community. “Keck” has tangible meaning in the geoscience community: talented students gaining field-based research experience supported by dedicated, master teachers.

Named one of seven “Programs That Work” by Project Kaleidoscope, the success of the Consortium is measured by generation of high-quality research projects, a growing pool of project directors including Consortium veterans and new faculty, application numbers that far exceed the number of positions available, students and faculty who have presented over two hundred multi-authored papers at conferences since 1988, and the Consortium alumni, who span the distance along career path from graduate school to mid-career, work in geoscience related business and industry, are K-12 and tertiary educators, work for non-profit organizations, and a occupy a variety of professions outside the sciences.