UMS WaterWorks at Illinois State Geological Survey Open House

University of Illinois, Champaign, IL

In the afternoon after Engineering Open House, the UMS WaterWorks group toured the Illinois State Geological Survey open house on the U of I campus. Students were introduced to nearly every facet of the survey's research and even had a chance to use some of the instruments the geologists use in the field. Students hunted for fossils, learned about "sniffing" for soil contamination, shocked the ground to create geologic maps, learned about chemistry, made state maps using GIS, and learned about dinosaurs. Students even got to take home a fossilized bone fragment from a real dinosaur!

(Left) Students learn about making geologic maps by shocking the ground; (Right) Students practice using ISGS instruments to locate magnetic fields

(Left) A student "sniffs" the gasses in a borehole using a hand held instrument to test for contamination; (Right) Learning about chemistry

(Left) Learning about life millions of years ago; (Right) The ISGS fossil expert shows off some of his collection

Fossil hunting (finders keepers)