Clutching large research instruments, they made their way across sphagnum moss, dense sedges, low shrubs and fallen trees trunks. Deep in the temperate rainforest of southeast Alaska, 12 undergraduates from Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Science, along with faculty, navigated boot-sucking muskegs to collect methane and peat samples that will provide carbon storage and emission information about wetlands in landscapes with retreating glaciers. The students were on the front lines researching climate change this summer as part of the college’s 2016 Center for Advanced Undergraduate Studies (CAUSE) course.
“I always thought of science as taking place in a sterile lab with white coats,” said Daniel Guarracino, an environmental systems engineering major. “I’d like to go to law school after graduation and practice environmental law, but first I want to understand the science behind the laws.”