There are three workshops that will be offered on Wednesday afternoon, June 24. Please sign up on the Registration page.
Teaching Microfossils with the Innovative App FossilSketch: Led by Christina Belanger, Anna Stepanova, and Katherine Cherry (Texas A&M University), this workshop will give geoscience educators practical experience working with the FossilSketch app to teach about foraminiferal morphology, assemblage analysis, and environmental applications of assemblage data. Participants will focus on software functionality and provide hands-on experience with FossilSketch. Participants will be guided through FossilSketch activities to gain familiarity with main ready-to-use modules to support student learning. After that, we will explore the instructor dashboard, where participants are able to view individual student statistics and monitor student progress as they advance through the modules. And finally, instructors will learn how to add their own microfossil images to the database to create customized image sets for student training. Maximum participants: 40; Cost: $10.
Triton Hackathon for Foraminiferal Macroecology and Macroevolution: Led by Adam Woodhouse (Cardiff University) and Anshuman Swain (University of Michigan), this workshop will train participants to use the Triton database, the most comprehensive record of Cenozoic planktonic foraminiferal occurrences, for macroecological and macroevolutionary research. Led by Triton co-creator Dr. Adam Woodhouse and evolutionary ecologist Dr. Anshuman Swain, the workshop covers details of the Triton database, R-based data access, cleaning, and visualization, and introduces a suite of ecological modeling techniques. After a brief introduction to the data and methods, we will hold a Triton hackathon, where participants will work in teams to analyze Triton and present their findings. Designed for graduate students, postdocs, and researchers alike, the course equips attendees with practical skills, collaborative experience, and new approaches to unlocking insights from the fossil record. Maximum participants: 25; Cost: $10.
Planktic and Benthic Foraminiferal Taxonomy Drop-in Hours: Biostratigraphers and taxonomists, including Brian Huber, Mimi Katz, Adriane Lam, Mark Leckie, Renata Moura, and Ellen Thomas, will be available Wednesday afternoon to help with any planktic and benthic foraminiferal identification questions you may have. Core and outcrop reference collections through the Cenozoic and late Mesozoic will be available for viewing, with microscopes set up around the room. Stop by momentarily or feel free to spend some time getting to know the planktic and benthic foraminifera. Maximum participants: Unlimited; Cost: Free.