Last week I was in Biology class learning about Mendelian inheritance, today I am aboard the JOIDES Resolution with the JR Academy. We’ve been learning about geology and science communication, but most of my peers on the JR Academy are geology majors. Although everyone has some relationship to geology, it’s usually still easy to understand the curriculum and the activities we’re doing. There are only a few of us with unrelated majors like me, a biomedical science major. Everyone is really good at explaining concepts and communicating science, and that’s what the JR Academy is all about- Science communication.
It’s the 4th day of the JR Academy, and today we watched some of the lab technicians split a core. It was core 999 U1518D 1H6 which came from New Zealand. We took samples from the core, and we were sure to label everything. Labeling is a big thing here, because we need to know what we’re studying. After that, we took samples from that core and put them on a slide, then we added a drop of water and put the slide on the hot plate. Once our samples were dry we added glue and a cover slip. We allowed the glue to cure under a UV light, and then we looked at them under a light microscope. When I saw the microscope, I was glad to finally see something I recognized. However, as soon as I focused on the sediments on my slide, I immediately was back to square one- I know nothing. It’s amazing to learn something completely new, and after this experience I definitely want to take a geology class next semester!

Rylin Lofton