Kristen St. John works with IODP to conduct research and hold local community education spaces
Description
Sediment cores drilled from ocean floors tell stories just like pages in a book, stories that include a geologic accounting of Earth’s climate going back millions of years.
Students in Kristen St. John's upper-level geology courses at James Madison University are learning that story firsthand this semester as they sift through samples from cores drilled from the depths of the Gulf of Mexico and the North Pacific.
What the students will discover, said St. John, a veteran researcher in the International Ocean Discovery Program, are clues to the climate in two distinct areas of the planet spanning the same geologic time period, from the last ice age — which started about 2.6 million years ago and ended about 11,700 years ago — to the present. Among the artifacts students will uncover are fossils, minerals and grains of various sizes. The way those artifacts change over time through the samples reveals clues to changes in climate.
A partnership between the International Ocean Discovery Program, JMU, the National Science Foundation and local organizations, the program features six kiosks with hands-on learning activities related to the science performed by St. John and her research colleagues from around the world, and an inflatable ship resembling the JOIDES Resolution, the ship that takes teams of scientists to sea to dig the cores. The kiosks are set up at each branch of Massanutten Regional Library through Sept. 12. All the kiosks and the inflatable ship will be set up at the main branch in downtown Harrisonburg on Saturday, Sept. 14. The complete program will also be set up at Valley Mall on Sept. 15, and at the Lucy F. Simms Continuing Education Center on Nov. 1.
Taken from: https://www.jmu.edu/news/2019/09/05-kristen-st-john.shtml
Involvement
Involves Faculty, Involves Students, Involves Participants External to JMU
Scope
International Scope
Date
2019
Type of Partner
Federal Agency; Nonprofit Agency; Professional Association
Primary Focus of Program
Children/Youth, and Family; Education PK-12; Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
Begin Date
2019
Areas of Engagement
Community Engagement, Engaged Learning
Format
Program, Research
On/Off campus
Off campus
