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Modern scientific research is often multidisciplinary, involving scientists from two or more different backgrounds. This is true of work done in areas as diverse as genomics and climate change. Many of the projects undertaken in these areas involve a combination of field, lab, and computational components. This project demonstrates how the principles of active learning, performing tasks and thinking about the tasks being performed (Bonwell and Eison, 1991), can be applied to multidisciplinary undergraduate science education and outreach in the context of field to analysis using 16S rRNA metagenomics. Beginning with the development of the scientific questions, students work through the entire process of developing, testing and implementing sampling protocols, hardware/software platforms for geocoded sample and metadata collection, and lab protocols; they work in the field taking samples and in the lab preparing them; they perform the computational analysis of the sequencer output and synthesis of metadata and genomic data; and they disseminate the results. The students primarily come from computer science, biology, geology, and physics. This broad range makes it possible to select groups that cover a wide range of traditionally underrepresented groups. By working together for a year or more the students learn about the range of science involved, the vocabulary and experimental methods, and how their discipline contributes to answering a large, complex question.
