Week 9 - SEM and Musik point

This week has been full of bits a pieces. On Monday I was able to sit on on a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) session with honours student Jessica. This session further links the Te Kopia project for me from seeing the thin sections in the optical microscope, to visiting the site itself and now seeing the samples under an ULTRA microscope. The SEM gets down to a level that you cannot see with the naked eye. I was blown away from seeing the structure in real life, to seeing samples take, then the thin sections and now down to a microbial level.

On Tuesday I went with Kathy and a research associate to Musik point to look at some concretions that were sticking up out of the ground. These were of interest because they are made of limestone when everything around them is mudstone. These concretions have methane gas in them. They're wondering if they relate to the fault lines. Did they surface because the methane gas forced them up? or did the fault line push them up?

The rest of the week was spent finalising my mid-phase one report and catching up on emails/admin from over the last 3 weeks.

I have thoroughly enjoyed all the experiences the last couple of weeks have brought me. So much learning was done, so many question were asked (and sometimes asked again some time later). It really has solidified for me the need to get our students experiencing science, and not just doing science. These experiences have helped me make very large and important connections between what I've witnessed/listened too/read at the university and the real world that I exist in. We need to be getting our students engaged in their real life worlds in a way that is relatable and hands on.