Geology Students Earn Recognition

The 47th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America's North Central Section was held on the campus of Western Michigan University, May 2-3. Of the 175 student presentations, six WMU students received special recognition for oral presentations and two were recognized for their poster presentations as follows:

• Jeffrey Barney received an Honorable Mention for his talk, “Do our Grading Practices Send the Right Message?”
• Steven Barone won GSA Best Poster for his presentation, "Teaching Paleoclimate and Climate Change to Future Teachers: An Action Research Study"
• Caitlin Callahan won the overall GSA Best Paper (oral) award for her talk, “How a Geologist can get Led Astray: A Video Log Study Examining how Errors in Observations and Interpretations Yield Errors in Geologic Maps” in Research in Earth Science Education
• Ann M. Gilchrist received an Honorable Mention for her talk, "Student Surveys: Useful Tools to Engage Non-Science Majors in Lab Activity Revisions"
• Denisha Griffey received an Honorable Mention for her talk,"The Effects of Road Salt Deicers on Redox Stratification and Salinization of Eutrophic Lakes in Southwest, Michigan, USA"
• Travis Hayden won GSA Best Paper (oral) for his talk, "Estimating Last Glacial Maximum Ice Thickness Using Porosity and Depth Relationships: Examples From AND-1B, McMurdo Sound, Antartica" in Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
• Kate Rowbotham received an Honorable Mention for her talk, “Generating Content Knowledge gains that stick: Craking the Code in a Field-based Water Quality Course”
• Kirk A. Wagenvelt received an Honorable Mention for his presentation, "Use of Organic Thermal Alteration Data to Investigate Anomalous/Accelerated Maturation Related to the Mid-Continent Rift System, Michigan Basin, USA"

In addition to three WMU students being recognized, WMU recent graduate, Steven Barone '13 won the GSA Best Poster Award in the graduate student category for his poster, "Teaching Paleoclimate and Climate Change to Future Teachers: An Action Research Study."

GSA provides access to elements that are essential to the professional growth of earth scientists at all levels of expertise and from all sectors: academic, government, business and industry. GSA's growing membership unites thousands of earth scientists from every corner of the globe in a common purpose to study the mysteries of our planet and share scientific findings.