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In addition to supporting the research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students, the MnSGC also is supporting the research of several faculty members affiliated with the Consortium. First, Bob Melchior at BSU has received partial support of his research on Paleocene climates, which has been a major research interest at BSU for some time. Bob has been gathering data for years in an attempt to reconstruct Paleocene vegetation and climate patterns and has recently completed work on South Carolina Paleoclimatic investigations; the results of this work will be published in the near future in South Carolina Geology .
Beginning this summer, in cooperation with Purdue University's Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory, BSU will undertake the task of dating selected glacial events, and the Bemidji-Leech Lake Region of Northern Minnesota has been chosen as the study area. Since glaciations from both the northeastern and northwestern accumulation centers crossed this area, it is an ideal location to carryout this research. Using cosmogenic 36Cl, 26Al and 10Be in certain minerals, it will be possible to determine, for example, the amount of time that has passed since the point in time when a particular rock was buried and removed from cosmic ray bombardment. It is hoped that dates for the initial Pleistocene onset of glaciation in Minnesota and a number of subsequent events (e.g., Sangamonian interglacial, Mid-Wisconsinan interstadial) can be determined. MnSGC funds will be used as seed money to cover the costs of the initial mapping of this region and in the elucidation of its subsurface stratigraphy. Two students with mapping experience will be employed this summer; another student may be added in the fall to assist with the collation of data. These students will travel to Purdue to train in the procedures used to prepare samples for the Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS). BSU plans to submit a proposal to NSF next year to receive funding to continue this project and support student research.
At the College of St. Catherine, Terry Flower received partial summer support for his research using CCD and IR Photometry of heavenly objects in the astrophysical environment. Last year, he studied with students from St. Catherine the SL9 collision with Jupiter and continues to do research in the area of asteroids that cross the Earth's orbital path.
Greg Ojakangas's research (UMD), which is partially supported by the MnSGC, is described in the section of this newsletter entitled "Undergraduate Research Opportunities." Research conducted by Tom Greenlee of Bethel College, in addition to that of Karl Wirth and John Craddock of Macalester, is not directly supported by the Consortium, but indirectly through the funding of their undergraduate researchers and is described in the undergraduate research section as well.
As planned, Augsburg College, the College of St. Catherine, Macalester College and the University of St. Thomas have continued their effort to develop a Space Science minor to be offered by the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC). Through the ACTC, a student attending any of the affiliated schools may complete their degree or minor by taking courses at any of the participating schools. The MnSGC affiliates listed above were interested in pooling together the specialized space science resources at each of the individual campuses to establish the interdisciplinary ACTC Space Science minor. A proposal describing the Space Science minor program has been examined by the Director of the ACTC and the curriculum committees of several of the participating institutions and is currently in revision by the coordinating committee. When implemented, the minor program will be coordinated by a multi-institutional and multi-departmental committee.
The Space Studies Minor at BSU, developed and implemented with the help of the MnSGC, has been in place for the past two years and is quite popular with science students at BSU. Three new courses have been added to make the program more viable and in tune with today's science concerns. The new courses are: "Environmental Politics," "History of NASA" and "Living in Isolated and Confined Environments." Total enrollment in the minor program has increased from 10 to over 30 students per year. In June, 10 students graduated with the Space Studies Minor.
The School of Industrial Technology has recently included the Space Studies Minor as a suggested program for Technology majors. This fall, we will enroll our first transfer students from two-years colleges in the program. We hope to expand the program to include a larger number of students who normally major in Humanities.
This interdisciplinary minor would be an option for students who are presently majoring in the natural sciences. The requirements for a minor in space science will consist of one course in astronomy, one course in planetary geology, one course from each of two different disciplines that are different from the student's major area of concentration (including biology, chemistry, geology or physics) and a minimum of two elective courses at the intermediate to advanced level from the Natural Sciences that support the space science minor. Several courses have been developed at the ACTC schools to support the minor program. Planetary Geology has been introduced at Macalester College and was offered during the fall of 1994. The course is being revised during summer 1995 and will be offered with a regularly scheduled laboratory section in fall 1995. The University of St. Thomas has began offering a Planetary Geology course as well, and the College of St. Catherine has proposed to offer Astrophysics if the ACTC minor is approved.
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