Publications, Awards, News

Department Activites

U of M Geological Society (GeoClub)

Written by Reina Balley, 2021-2021 GeoClub president

The University of Minnesota Geological Society, also known as the Geoclub, had an exciting 2021-2022 year! The ability to be back on campus and gather safely allowed students to meet for various activities. The monthly meetings offered students a time to find new friends, opportunities, and fun! Over the past year, GeoClub also invited special guests to talk about career opportunities, research, field experience courses, and more. Students were kept up to date on departmental news through the club, which allowed them to further their involvement within the Earth & Environmental Sciences Department. Geoclub saw some of their most immense involvement this year as students were more than excited to be back in person which fueled the club’s ability to flourish.

In the fall, Geoclub held a career fair which invited companies from the Twin Cities to showcase their job opportunities in internships or full-time careers. This year was the first since the pandemic that Geoclub was able to plan and hold the Spring Trip which went to Utah National Parks. Students were able to take a 1-credit class to learn about the basic geology of the sites as well as visit with a guiding professor. Geoclub also held a fundraiser for this trip in the form of an outstanding Succulent Sale that sold out in about an hour. Other meetings had fun activities like painting mini pumpkins, creating valentines, or bowling which allowed students to get to know each other after learning valuable information from the meetings. Being back in person has allowed Geoclub to establish itself once more and this coming year will be even better!

GeoClub Succulent Sale

GeoClub Spring Trip

Written by Joel Barker, Research Faculty

In the early morning of May 18th, 14 members of the GeoClub, along with Joel Barker and Deide Hein (Research Faculty and Ph.D. student respectively, Earth & Environmental Sciences) climbed into two University vans and embarked on a journey of exploration and practical application of concepts learned in the classroom centered on the environs of southern Utah.

During the proceeding 10 days, we all experienced the splendor of ancient sand dunes in Nebraska, crustal uplift and deformation in Colorado and Wyoming, and spectacular erosional artifacts in southern Utah and Arizona, including those in evidence at Zion, Arches, and Bryce Canyon National Parks. We observed textbook examples of incised meander bends at Goosenecks State Park and Horseshoe Bend, walked in the incised Virgin River between towering cliffs of sandstone in the Narrows of Zion National Park. We witnessed the effect of water percolation into fractured bedrock and the resultant formation of arches, windows, and hoodoos in Arches and Bryce Canyon National Parks. In all, students were able to apply Earth surface processes of uplift and erosion learned in class and see how theory manifests as the dramatic landscapes of the southern Utah region. Each student brought with them unique experiences and perspectives, contributing in their own way to a team building exercise that was the 2022 GeoClub Spring Trip.

Written by Kat Cantner, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee member

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee leads education and other training initiatives and activities, provides information and advice to members of the School, and helps determine goals and evaluate progress in promoting DEI values. DEI activities are central to all department activities: teaching in classrooms, labs, and the field; mentoring and advising; research in all its forms; and many other aspects of work in the School. This past year:

• The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Seminar working group filled a quarter of the soft and hard rock seminar slots with both external and internal speakers presenting on confronting colonization, community engagement, inclusive teaching and our ESCI Anti-racism Action Plan among other topics.

• The Departmental DEI Discussion working group organized two conversations facilitated by Dr. Virajita Singh (OED) during the Fall semester with over 35 department members including students, staff, researchers, and faculty. In the Spring semester the group hosted targeted community-building events within peer groups to encourage open discussion of DEI issues.

• This Fall, the Confronting Colonization in ESCI working group held three JEDI seminars to workshop the document

ESCI Statement of Intent: Commitments to Indigenous Lands and Peoples, added American Indian Studies courses to the list of technical electives for B.S. students, and presented a poster on their work at the AGU Fall Conference.

During the Spring semester they formed a Community-of-Practice that held monthly meetings, reviewed and revised the draft of Commitments to follow the Statement of Intent, and developed a living document Resource Guide.

• The Unlearning Racism and Improving JEDI Action Plan working group merged the deliverables from ESCI’s five discussion groups that participated in the national URGE program, created an executive summary of suggested policies and action items, and is developing a plan for endorsement by Associate Dean Ellen Longmire.

• The Inclusive Teaching working group convened in the Spring semester and held three workshops led by Kris

Gorman from the Center for Educational Innovation. They will continue this practice of hosting three workshops each semester as an ongoing series to increase departmental capacity for inclusive teaching and learning.

• The DEI Website and Resource working group has created a DEI page on the ESCI website that includes the department’s goals, activities and new initiatives, information on the DEI Committee and working groups, and DEI resources through the University and professional institutions.

• The newest DEI initiative is the Accessible ESCI group which is working with the Department and the Disability

Resource Center to design communication pathways to gather feedback about department members’ needs and accommodation experiences to normalize conversations around access.

Delicate Arch: GeoClub students for scale (Arches National Park)

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Earth Student Research Symposium

Written by Rashida Doctor, Graduate Student

EarthSRS is an annually held student-led research symposium organized by graduate students in the Departments of Earth & Environmental Sciences (ESCI) and Soil, Water, and Climate (SWAC). EarthSRS is an opportunity for graduate and undergraduate students to share their research and accomplishments with the Earth science community at UMN. This year, the symposium was held completely virtually over the course of two days. The work of 13 graduate and eight undergraduate students was showcased to the over 80 registered attendees from six different departments/programs. The presenters came from ESCI, SWAC, and Water Resources departments, and the presentations spanned a wide range of earth science related topics, from fluid-rock interactions in subduction zones to the effects of soil health management systems to mammal diversity in North America to food sovereignty. Additionally, we were excited to have Dr. Steven Semken share his experiences with place-based education in environmental sciences as the keynote speaker.

The symposium relies on postdocs and researchers, who volunteer their time and insight, to act as anonymous judges. Each presenter receives feedback from multiple judges on their research and presentation skills. Scores given by the

Department Activites

judges were used to award a best poster and presentation award. The winner of the best poster award was Amanda Patsis (ESCI) who shared research on the importance of organic sulfur in the deep biosphere. The winner of the best oral presentation award was Shanti Penprase (ESCI), who talked about glacially-driven base level change of the Whitewater River in Minnesota. Overall, the virtual modality allowed for a more accessible symposium, as many people were able to listen and interact with the presenters.

Outreach Through Science and Art

Written by Jennifer Taylor, Graduate Student, member of Outreach through Science and Art

This was a busy year for Outreach through Science and Art (OSA), an interdisciplinary group led by ESCI students dedicated to creative science communication. We were inspired by Cameron Carpenter’s performance on the Northrop pipe organ to explore how sound waves generated in volcanos behave like those in giant organ pipes. Our interactive exhibit encouraged the Northrop audience to explore the physics of sound and even record and analyze their own sounds. We also partnered with local choreographers at Analog Dance Works as they developed dances inspired by white tailed deer in Minnesota and humans’ complex psychological responses to climate change. OSA created a series of sciencebased displays exploring climate change in Minnesota to accompany Analog’s debut performance.

In addition to working with professional artists, OSA is constantly encountering talented and creative UMN students making art inspired by science. The artistic side of STEM students often goes unrecognized. Seeing the need for a space to showcase and celebrate student-made science-related art, this year OSA hosted our first Science/Art Exhibition. The Exhibition was held in conjunction with the Earth Student Research Symposium and filled the 3rd floor atrium windows of Tate Hall with a stunning array of paintings, drawings, sculptures, 3D prints, creative writing, mixed media, soundscapes, and knits. The art covered a wide range of science topics and themes, from the bleaching of coral reefs to advances in artificial intelligence and the science behind our food. Artists represented more than ten science programs across the university, including several ESCI graduate and undergraduate students. You can access the online version of the Exhibition through the OSA website: https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/osa

Audience members at Northrop investigate sounds made by pipe organs, volcanos, and stars. Visitors enjoying the Science/Art Exhibition on the 3rd floor of Tate Hall.

Community Relationships Summit

Written by Maddy Nyblade, Graduate Student, and co-organizer of Summit

Following the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020, a wave of activism spread across our city of Minneapolis, our Earth & Environmental Sciences Department at the University of Minnesota, and our national and global geoscience community. Motivated by the local, in-the-streets calls for racial justice, undergraduate and graduate students in our department wrote a letter to faculty and staff advocating for change across our academic community. One call to action increased department engagement within our surrounding Twin Cities community, specifically those traditionally marginalized in the geosciences (e.g. urban residents, people of color). A group led by students Jabari Jones and Maddy Nyblade, and staff member Kat Cantner, organized and hosted a summit between members of the department and local community organizations with a focus on environmental issues, all made possible by the Sam Sawkins Fund.

The goal of this summit was to initiate and support meaningful relationships, with the hope that they would grow into research and curricular partnerships in support of the community’s priorities and self-determination. Along the way, the organizing team connected with and learned from community engagement scholars and practitioners both within the University of Minnesota and within community organizations partnering with the University. Informed by these relationships, we hosted the summit in November 2021, which brought together 19 department members and 23 members of environmental community organizations including neighborhood associations, urban gardening organizations, youth outdoor programs, and water rights activist groups. Following the event, a few collaborative projects have taken root, and yet we still have more work to deepen and maintain these relationships and transform our department to support this work. We are looking to host this event this coming year to continue building these and other relationships.

Written by Clare Boerighter, St. Anthony Falls Laboratory

Over the course of five weeks during the Spring 2021 semester, eight graduate students and postdoctoral researchers from the Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences gathered virtually for a science writing workshop. Led by Rob Ulrich (writing consultant and Ph.D. Student at UCLA) and Clare Boerigter (Communications Manager for UMN’s St. Anthony Falls Laboratory), the workshop series focused on the writing process, refining abstracts and plain language summaries, and translating research for popular science outlets and social media.

In two small workshop groups, participants read and offered feedback to one another on both technical and generalaudience writing. “It was nice to hear about other peoples’ struggles with writing,” one participant shared. “[I realized] that I’m not the only one who finds writing a bit daunting.” While bonding over shared challenges – such as counting words to meet the specific requirements of an abstract or explaining wordy terminology – participants were able to help one another see their pieces through a new lens. According to one participant, “I feel more confident in my own editing and writing process after giving feedback to others and receiving feedback on what I do well.”

At the conclusion of the workshop, participants walked away energized by their conversations with one another. “The sense of community around academic writing helped me with my writing productivity,” one participant said. With interest from several participants around continuing the workshop, the science writing workshop may return in the coming semesters.

Earth Science Writing Workshop

Photo of participants in the Earth Science Writing Workshop taking place virtually via zoom