When I first decided to be a Geology Major heading into my senior year of High School, I admittedly did not know much about the subject, nor of what it would entail. All I really knew is that the Earth was a puzzle and I was putting myself in a position that I would start to solve it. My limited scope of what the geosciences really are allowed me to be astounded and dumbstruck as to what they truly encompass in society. With such a broad scope, they have a multitude of positions that they must encompass. In my short time formally being in the field, I have had the privilege of learning a broad scope and getting to try my hand at a few different things. At a mere 22 years of age, here are a few skills and topics that my studies in geology have allowed me to try and/or pretend to be good at.
Hydraulic Engineering
In a stranger twist of events, I found myself last semester in a class at the FSU-FAMU Engineering Campus. In hydrogeology, there is a lot of irregularity within water flowing through rock pore space. Because of this, the perfect, uniform case is easier to study and then consider some extra variables like friction and tortuosity. That uniform case is water flowing through a pipe, and thus I found myself in Hydraulic Engineering II (without taking H.E. I, because that is an undergraduate class).
Chemist
All geology majors at my school must take up to Chemistry 2 and I really enjoyed this. I realized that I would only have to take one more class and lab to get a Chemistry minor, so I took Analytical Chemistry. Little did I know that this would be useful when I did undergraduate research on detecting radon to estimate the amount of groundwater seepage into a local lake.
Geography/Cartography
Geology and maps go hand in hand. I was able to make maps with datasets in my GIS class. On top of this, making geologic maps is one of the primary tasks of our Field Camp in which we spent days collecting measurements in the field and then made maps by hand and using GIS programs.
Programming
I have had the opportunity to take a couple of programming courses in C++ and R. My Masters project involves programming an Arduino micro-controller to automate a device and an R program to automatically process the collected data.
Electric Engineering
This one s admittedly a stretch, as I am developing an electronic device, but I am not personally building it. A researcher in the department who is helping me with my project is extremely skilled in electronics and building circuit boards. While he is bringing my ideas to reality, he has given me a few quick lessons on what different components of the circuit.
Teacher
One of my favorite aspects of being a graduate student s being a Teaching Assistant. The past year, I got to teach a lab for an Introduction to Earth Science class. Affectionately known as "Rocks for Jocks," this is the course that many non-STEM students take to fulfill a Natural Science Lab credit that is required to graduate from the university. This was a lot of fun because Earth Science is typically not taught in public school, so I had the opportunity to give these people some of their first exposure to understanding the natural world and sharing my passions with them.
Hiker/Adventurer
Very rarely are the rocks/ponds that you study are next to a sidewalk. It's time to break out the hiking boots, get a little mud on the tire, and go get out there.
Ambassador
As a member of the university, the department, and the Geology program, it is my responsibility to be an ambassador within my communities to display a proper understanding of the Geosciences and rational, critical thought. I am friends with a lot more non-geoscience folks than not and that is something I consider pretty seriously. As I go out into the world, I not only represent my views but the quality of the institution with the things I say and the research that I do. Keeping myself sharp means upholding more than my own scientific reputation. With things like this blog and personal experiences, I want to focus on public outreach and inform more people about the geosciences.
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