High School Field Trip - College Campus Life and Climate Change Research

Students spend the day at UW to see, for some, a first glimpse at college campus life along with an in-depth focus on the world of climate change research.

High school students are broken up into teams and spend about 30 minutes at stations that walk them through the various tasks required to reconstruct climate. In all cases, the actual laboratory where that work takes places is where the station is happening. Stations have included sample collection and preparation with topics like ice cores, sediment cores, carbonates, and pollen grains. Then students walk through more analytical stations such as vacuum distillation, sample purification, and stable isotope analysis.

Students go through a campus tour, have lunch at the student union, and have an opportunity to ask UW undergraduate students questions about campus life.

This event has typically been a large group of students and each station has at least one person from UW.

College Student Field Trip - General Isotope Geochemistry

Students spend an afternoon in an isotope geochemistry laboratory exploring sample preparation and analysis. The group is usually broken up into two groups, one for sample preparation and one for sample analysis. We make an attempt to put tools in the hands of the students.

Some classes move through the trip simply for the experience while others must leave with the beginnings of a small research project that is part of their course. Students could then send samples back to the lab for analyses pertinent to their class research question.

This event has, historically, been comprised of a single small undergraduate class either from on UW campus or from other local universities.