Spotlight on Students: Colie Delong and Casey Michalowski

This spring Colie DeLong and Casey Michalowski, both Geology majors at Kutztown University, attended the Northeastern Geological Society of America conference to present on a collaborative research project that they began working on in CBFS's Marine Geology course last summer.  Over the past few months, the students worked alongside Dr. Oakley to investigate Holocene sedimentation in the Chincoteague Bay through analyzing vibracore and CHIRP Sonar sub-bottom data. After their presentation at GSA, Colie notes that she, "received a lot of positive feedback. Now that I have a little bit of experience sharing research, I feel more comfortable with what I'm doing." Both Colie and Casey agree that the Marine Geology course opened doors for them to become research assistants, which is the case for many of the field-based courses that CBFS offers each summer. For Colie, not only did the course help her to pursue research but to also obtain a minor in Marine Science - she plans to take two more courses at CBFS this summer! She recommends courses at the Field Station because, "you get a lot of experience with equipment and field work... It also shows that you have a dynamic learning experience and it will look good on a resume." Casey remembers one of her favorite experiences from last summer's Marine Geology course: "We went to Assateague Island to dig holes in order to see how deep the water table was. By the end of this, I was in an eight-foot hold dissing with a horseshoe crab!"

Casey Michalowski, Dr. Oakley, and Colie DeLong at the NE GSA conference this spring.