Activities:

• GSA Conference 2009 – Five students from the Geology club attended the Northeast Section Meeting for the Geological Society of America, located in Portland, Maine. This took place on March 21-24, 2009. Rachel Frohman, Ben Forer, Ben Olds, Amber Hill, and Kaitlin Thomas were the students who attended, and they each had a great experience at the conference, attending different lectures and poster sessions. This conference allowed geology and earth science majors to network and see other opportunities offered throughout the northeast United States.


• Boy Scouts of America – On Saturday, February 14th, 2009, members from the Cal U Geology Club helped a troop of Boy Scouts earn their geology Merit Badge. The boy scouts went to two different stations dealing with different aspects of geology. The first station included mineral identification. The boy scouts were able to use the diagnostic properties to identify different minerals. The other station used Fun-Dough to show folding of rocks. Comparing their own fold patterns to the geologic map of Pennsylvania allowed them to see the similarities between them.


• PGS Meetings – Once a month, the Pittsburgh Geological Society holds meetings in Pittsburgh. Students attend these meetings and hear different speakers talk about important topics. Student Night is an annual event held by the PGS, which allows students to present posters at the meeting. Members from the Geology Club attended this event, held on April 15th, 2009.


• Niagara Falls – On October 17th, 2008, a group of 14 students from Geology Club stayed the weekend in Buffalo, New York to visit Niagara Falls. This was an educational trip, aimed to learn about the geology of the Niagara Falls area. Led by Dr. Fredrick, students hiked down the Niagara Gorge and viewed the Niagara River. On the last day of the trip, they visited the Penn Dixie Site in New York to dig for fossils. They were able to learn about the different types of fossils found in the area and find a number of different types themselves!


• Storm Fest – StormFest is a two-day event coordinated by the Cal U Meteorology Club that took place on Friday, January 30th and Saturday, January 31st, 2009 at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. Over 1,000 students from all grade-levels attended this event to learn about earth sciences through a number of different stations. The Geology Club set up three stations at this event including coloring with minerals, sifting for pyrite, and mineral matching. It is a great opportunity to get the public aware of the Earth Science Program at Cal U as well as interest young students in the earth sciences.


• Educational Outreach – On Thursday, April 2, 2009, two Geology Club members visited a local school to talk about geology. Emily Zabkar and Kaitlin Thomas taught 5th graders at McGuffey Elementary School about folding and faulting, core sampling, and rocks and minerals. The students enjoyed the hands on activities and were very excited about the visit. This is a great opportunity not only for the club, but for the students.


• Science Olympiad – On Wednesday, March 25th, 2009, a number of Earth Science Students helped out with the Science Olympiad. This is a program for high school students to test on different fields of science, competing against other high schools. The schools are then ranked on their test scores. Geology Club volunteers helped at stations including Dynamic Planet, Fossils, Science Pentathlon, and Remote Sensing.