Emily DeWitt, a freshman from North High School student visited the Paleontology/Paleoceanography Lab at ISU to job shadow Dr. Rathburn. Emily is interested in a career in oceanography, and, as part of an innovative course at North High School, was able to spend a day learning about what oceanographers do at ISU. She met with Dr. Rathburn and Dr. Latimer, attended one of Dr. Rathburn's classes, and talked with several of oceanographic research students. In addition, Emily was briefly trained in microscope techniques, and used the skills she acquired to remove marine specimens from seafloor sediments that had been collected by ISU students during a research cruise off the coast of California. She was also given a tour of the facilities, including a behind the scenes view of the new coral reef aquarium now on public display in the Science Building. Students showed Emily some of the marine fossils in our collection and provided her with an explanation of the posters of student research that had been presented at National Meetings. Undergraduate students from ISU, including Ellen Brouillette, Cassie Gray, and Brian Wrightsman, also talked with Emily about their perspective of oceanographic research, what it is like to work in a marine science laboratory, and about their experiences conducting research off the coasts of Alaska, California, and Italy.

We all thoroughly enjoyed Emily's visit, and hope that she will choose ISU as the place to pursue her interests in oceanography.
 

Click on the Photos below to enlarge the pictures of Emily's visit to ISU!!!