October 2008 issue
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Student Column
Field Trips, Road Trips, Rocks and Fundraising
Geoscience student societies map out a full calendar at the University of Alberta
BY SEAN CONTENTI, LAURENCE JAYAWARDANE & NADIA BRUEMMER
U of A Student Columnists (Geosciences)
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THE WRITING TEAM |
Now that the new school year’s begun, the University of Alberta geo-science column resumes as well. As you can see from the byline, three of us have taken on the task.
We are Sean Contenti, the president of the University of Alberta Geophysics Undergraduate Society; Laurence Jayawardane, president of the P.S. Warren Geological Society; and Nadia Bruemmer, vice-president, external, of P.S. Warren.
UAGUS is the student-run geophysics society. It supports students academically and also provides them networking opportunities. P.S. Warren plays a similar role for geology students.
As for the three of us, we’re ready to keep you informed about geoscience activities at the U of A for the rest of the school year.
Geophysical Adventures
Fourth-year geophysics students have just returned from a week-long field school spent camping near Milk River. During this week, students ran surveys using a variety of methods, such as reflection, refraction, vertical seismic profiling and gravity. The fieldtrip was capped off with a hike to an ultramafic dike outcrop.
The year is shaping up to be quite exciting. We’re even planning a trip in November to the Society of Exploration Geophysicists annual meeting in Las Vegas. As it stands, this SEG event will be the biggest event organized by UAGUS — in the history of the society.
As well as attending the meeting, students will get the opportunity to attend a daytrip to the Grand Canyon. It’s going to be great, so we must acknowledge our sponsors for making this trip possible. Thank you to Talisman, BP Canada, Hampson-Russell, Key Seismic and Sigma for their generous donations.
The society has also been very active in recruiting new members. This year will likely surpass the record for the most enrolments, with 80-85 per cent of geophysics students registered with the society.
Warren Rebuild
As for P.S. Warren, enrolments are starting at the time of this writing. We aim to surpass last year’s count of 137 members.
This year is going to be a year of change for P.S. Warren. Last year’s executive had revamped the constitution to make it more efficient.
This year we saw the creation of new positions within the executive, as secretary and treasurer duties are now two separate responsibilities, and we now have a grad co-chair. These changes will distribute responsibilities and workload more evenly.
As well as introducing a new constitution, the society relocated to a different building on campus. The new common room is located in a more centralized spot, which gives students direct access to a food court but remains next door to the Earth Sciences building.
This may not seem significant now — but it will later as temperatures plunge. We are looking forward to getting couches, as they had been the most appreciated feature of the old room.
In the Mix
To kick off the year, P.S. Warren held a “geo-mixer” on campus, Sept. 18. Students mixed and mingled with their peers, as well as TAs and professors. Meeting people from the department is an important part of the university geology experience, as the department over time becomes a second home.
The mixer took place after The PEGG’s deadline, so we’ll have details on how it went in our next column.
More socializing and networking events are being planned for this coming year. We look forward to holding a costume Halloween Party, as well as a Christmas Banquet in conjunction with ATLAS, which is the graduate student society of the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences Department.
P.S. Warren this year is going to be busy! We will be fundraising for our year-end graduation banquet (student-organized by undergrads in Earth sciences), which will be held right after the Earth Ring Ceremony on April 4, 2009. A fundraising campaign is critical, because this event is the most expensive on the P.S. Warren calendar.
The students put in a great amount of effort each year, as they hold various fundraisers for the event. The creation of the grad co-chair position is meant to allow for a stronger and more visible fundraising campaign.
Looking North
P.S. Warren is also looking forward to organizing a Reading Week field trip for February 2009. Our hope is to go to the Northwest Territories, the Yukon or both, and to bring a professor along to teach us more about the geology of the area.
We would appreciate any suggestions, if you know about any unique or interesting geological sites up there.
Speaking of field trips, geology students at U of A would like to extend their gratitude to Shell Canada and ConocoPhillips Canada for their generous sponsorships of second- and third-year field schools, respectively. Both field schools are integral parts of the geology program, and as students, we often feel the weight of significant extra fees.
That these companies helped offset the cost of the field trips has made a huge difference to students. They generously paid all the non-tuition fees, which included hotels and transportation for 10 and 12 days. Also, the students on third-year field school enjoyed ConocoPhillips’s donation of new Brunton compasses and GPS units.
P.S. Warren will be organizing trips to attend various conferences throughout the year. The most popular two are the Western Inter-University Geoscience Conference, a student-run conference that will be held at UBC in January 2009, and Roundup, another conference in Vancouver.
Going to these conferences involves travel, of course, so we are always interested in sponsorship to help reduce the burden on students.
That’s it for now. Tune in next month for an update on both societies, and what’s happening in the world of geosciences at the U of A. Have a great month!
More Info
P.S. Warren
www.eas.ualberta.ca/pswarren
(brand-new website)
psw@ualberta.ca.
UAGUS
www.ualberta.ca/~uagus
uagus@ualberta.ca.
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