Geology exhibits attract students, community
The Geology Building was rockin’ Saturday during the biannual Rock and Fossil Day.
The free event gave students and adults and children from the community a chance to see what geology is all about.
“It’s a good opportunity to get young minds thinking about science,” said Scott Friedman, a graduate student in geology who participated in Rock and Fossil Day. “It also gives young minds an opportunity with geology, and gets them excited about science.”
Tom Lachmar, an associate professor of geology who was also in charge of organizing the event, said, “We have the Rock and Fossil Day so people know who we are and what we do. It’s a good community outreach, and people get excited. Most geologists like to get other people excited about geology.”
There were many different displays and exhibits set up throughout the Geology Building, including hands-on displays where visitors were welcomed to touch and discover the exhibits.
“[I’ve been] finding the larger rocks that we have,” said Sue Morgan, a professor of geology who was in charge of the mineral and fossil display. “I’ve also been encouraging people to come in and touch the samples.”
Some of the other exhibits that were part of the Rock and Fossil Day were microscope views of rocks and minerals, demonstrations of how to identify minerals with X-ray diffraction, satellite maps, ground-water displays and even a traveling exhibit from the Utah Museum of Natural History.
“I like the ground-water display and demonstration exhibit because it’s mine,” Lachmar said. “The exhibit that is the most popular to visitors is the rock identification. They bring in the rocks and we can give them the expertise of what it is.”
Paul Johnson attended the event with his two young sons.
“My neighbor told me about the event, and my older son likes rocks and fossils, so we came for him,” he said.
One of the main purposes of the Rock and Fossil Day is to get young minds interested in geology and science. The event also helps to spotlight geological research and studies at USU.
“One of the best parts is people realizing that geology is really neat and interesting,” Morgan said. “It’s great for people just to see what geology is all about, and that it’s not just rocks either.”
“The preparation depends on the exhibits. Most folks set up Friday night and finish Saturday morning,” Lachmar said. “The PR is the most important thing.”
The advertising for the event was recently taken over by the USU public relations department, which has helped to spread awareness for the event.
“The attendance has been very dramatic in the past. In some past years we have had under 100 people, and some years we have had almost 200 people,” Lachmar said. “The hardest thing is letting people know about it. A lot of people are interested, but they just don’t know about it.”
Community and university members toured through the hallways identifying rocks and learning about earthquakes.
“Come out and have a good time,” Friedman said. “It’s a good opportunity to check out one of the departments of the university that you might not think about, and to get the kids excited about science.”
-rbarlow@cc.usu.edu