UNDERGRADUATE MENTORING… field work part 1: making a plan.

Making a general plan for undergraduates doing field work with you will greatly reduce your stress, the students stress, and the cost of the whole thing. If you are considering whether you should have your undergraduate students do field work as part of their thesis then you should ask them (and maybe yourselves) 3 things first:

1. Are they unable (for any reason) to do field work the way you are thinking of it? I suggest outlining what “field work” means to you and the project. Does it require long hikes? Small spaces? Swimming, diving, or being on a boat? Long weekends? Students may not be able to or comfortable with doing the tasks that you are thinking of and you should have open communication about that. This does not mean they can’t be in your research group!!! It does mean that there should be dialogue about creating a field experience that meets their comfort and ability levels that the work requires. If it requires hiking, is there a way to make that hike more accessible or a way to train your students to hike? etc. For accessibility concerns, I suggest visiting the resources page for the IAGD. Another thing to consider is your students’ other jobs. You may need to work with them or their other employers/professors to find space for the students to do field work. And finally, a student may not have experience in the field. We should honor that by giving our students the training and equipment they need (see below). This may help students feel more comfortable in the field. 
2. Does the planned field work match the goals of the student? If the student wants to become a field scientist, then load their thesis with field science. Alternatively, if they don’t at all then it is better to plan a thesis that doesn’t require it so that the student has more time to focus on other skills they may want, or need, for their future. Recognize that there is a spectrum in between. This may be a delicate task, because for many fields there may be a lot of employment opportunities for students who have field experience. I encourage you to do your research with the career advising office at your institution, or alumni group for your department, and listen if those places are telling you that undergraduates need certain skills to be employable. You can also share and discuss your research with your undergraduate students to better understand what their goals are. If a student still doesn't want to field work, then honor that as well, and help them find a middle ground. Finally, students may want to do a very specific type of field work to get the kind of skills they need. For instance, our department focuses a lot on field geologic mapping in the undergraduate curriculum and the students that come to me often want more of an environmental science type of field experience to balance this out. I encourage you to include those desires in your field work plan. 
3. Where is the funding for field gear and for undergraduate field experiences coming from? This is a two-parter. First, I encourage you to look for funding sources for undergraduate’s working on research (AWG​, Cave Conservancy Foundation). Warning: many of the require some lead time. Second, it is important that you and your students recognize that outfitting a student for the field is expensive. Where is that money going to come from? Is there flexibility in the grants you already have to buy common gear like tents? Is there flexibility in the funding sources that an undergraduate has access to for the gear? Can the students borrow everything they would need? Having open communication about this expense, and what you both can do to lower it, is necessary for many students. Remember that this may be the first time they have ever done field work before. 

For undergraduates in our group, I do some of the following things to help relieve the funding gap and help first-time outdoor goers out:

1. Encourage students to get field experience through the Research Experience for Undergraduates program at the NSF, if they can (link here). I do this because in that program they can get paid for doing the work and the funding for those projects includes funding for the student research (sample prep, analysis, etc.). Students can then incorporate that experience into what they do over the school year with me. 
2. Encourage students to participate in “field work trainings” (like this one organized by the AWG at UC Davis) or create one yourself. I often have students go on walks with me (if they are able and comfortable) with their gear so that they can see how much things weigh. We do a lot of hiking in my field work and it is important for students who have not done much backpacking to understand how much a pack weighs before they sign up for that experience. 
3. A field gear exchange. I have self-funded a small field gear exchange for undergraduate students working with me and it is very popular. It alleviates a small fraction of the cost, but it is something. Here is how it works: the gear is stored in a common workspace that the students have access to at all times (this way they can use the gear for classes as well as research) but that is not accessible for everyone (safety reasons). I teach the students how to use the gear in a one-hour meeting. I tell everyone that it is first come, first served and who ever borrows the gear understands that if they don’t return it promptly it will impact the others. Finally, if the students notice something is broken, they should tell me immediately. The field supply I have includes the following stuff:
   1. a one-person tent
   2. a set of rain gear (rain jacket and rain pants)
   3. three 1 L nalgenes (to help students carry enough water)
   4. two sleeping pads 
   5. several cave helmets 
   6. full set of SRT gear (this they cannot borrow unless they are going somewhere with me).
   7. a medium size backpacking pack (it doesn’t fit everyone, working on it).
   8. Hiking polls.
   9. the students can additionally borrow, if they ask me in advance, a larger tent and a sleeping bag.