Dr. Jennifer L. Bouldin, director, Ecotoxicology Research Facility, recently led this year's cohort of 11 undergraduate students on a canoeing trip of the Spring River in order to take water samples for biological and chemical characterization of the river. The cohort undertook the river sampling through ASU's ARISE (Accelerated Research in the Science of the Environment) program. The ARISE program, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), brings undergraduate interns to ASU-Jonesboro for a three-week environmental internship program each year. This year's cohort also went spelunking to study geological formations at Blanchard Spring caverns and worked at archeological sites with Dr. Julie Morrow, Jonesboro station archeologist, Arkansas Archeological Survey. Last year's interns unearthed human bones more than 5,000 years old. The students, senior Jerry Tharp, junior Aaron Weaver, senior James Evans Davidson, sophomore Chven Mitchell, senior Molly Brown, sophomore Bloom Harris, junior Keisha Gray, senior Keisha Person, senior Paul Hogan, senior Kristopher White, and Teresa Brueggen, a first-year graduate student, presented their research in ABI, Room 107, Friday. The students also worked with Dr. Gauri Guha, Economics, who taught them environmental economics, Dr. Carolyn Dowling, Chemistry, who worked with them in chemistry, and Dr. Steven Green, Soil and Water Conservation, who taught them nutrient analysis. Dr. Bouldin serves as principle investigator (PI) and Drs. Dowling and Morrow are co-investigators (Co-Is). ASU's ARISE program enhances graduate studies in the geosciences and environmental sciences by encouraging diversity in these fields.