After a suspenseful year of planning and multi-team synergy, URGE held a Geology Day outreach event at Larrabee State Park in collaboration with GEAR UP, Vamos Outdoors Project, and the Burlington-Eddison school district. Using materials from the successful Fall 2022 field trip largely organized by Mahina Robbins, Emily Smoot, and Paige Koenig, our new team reconstructed a day of learning, discussion, and interaction focusing on sedimentary, structural, and glacial geology.

A group of nine middle school students, most of whom had never taken an earth science or environmental science course, met us with our collaborators on the morning of Saturday, May 4th at Larrabee State Park. These middle school students looked at evidence for sea level change, varying grain sizes, tilted beds, glacial striations, glacial erratics, and honeycomb weathering. By attempting to lift a smaller erratic, it was impressed upon students that it takes a lot of energy to transport larger grains. Other activities in which students engaged included measuring angles of repose, compositionally sorting beach pebbles, measuring grain sizes, and locating themselves on a map. Several students shared with mentors that they already held interests in the geosciences, whether that be fossils, colorful minerals, or rock collecting. Furthermore, students received geoscience career cards and discussed potential careers in geoscience and what kinds of activities they involve (e.g., hydrogeologists may determine what contaminants are in groundwater, a field technician may deploy and collect various field instruments, and a geologic oceanographer may map the ocean floor).

Pre-event survey results showed that the students had a variety of favorite school subjects (e.g., art, history, math, etc.) and that most of them have never considered a career in science. Post-event survey results indicate that a majority of the students feel more interested in geoscience and would go on a similar field trip again. With one exception, all students claimed that their definition of a geoscientist changed, becoming more extensive. The collaborators are interested in organizing another event with URGE members, so look out for opportunities to get involved!