On February 13th, the team made a trip over to Des Moines for UNI Day at the Capitol! Jessica, Riley, and Juliana went to Des Moines with Dr. Sebree to talk with legislators about what the team is doing and its impacts for future research.
Jessica, Riley, and Juliana posing with the BETA tri-fold
This year the event went from 11am-2pm which meant an early drive for the team, but everyone showed up with their coffee ready to go! It was a busy day at the capitol so not as many legislators had the time to stop by as last year, but the team had a good turnout. Jessica and Juliana handed out fossils collected from Rockford Quarry last semester along with notecards highlighting the website so interested legislators could find out more about the project. All three students then took turns describing the three components of the project to everyone who stopped by!
Juliana explaining the fog portion of the project to an interested Board of Regents member
Juliana and Jessica had some favorite parts of the day.
"Sharing the project with others was a really good experience. Especially, seeing how interested some of the people seemed to be with the research we are working on." -Juliana
"Seeing the faces of visitors light up as they saw just how unique our project is and that a project like ours is happening at UNI." -Jessica
While many parts of the day were fun, it was definitely a learning experience as well. The team had to adapt to a completely new audience, most of which did not have any science background. It was good practice for future presentations (especially with respect to trying not to use scientific jargon)!
It was a fun day for all the students, especially since the UNI community showed up in such large numbers that there was almost not enough room for everyone in the Rotunda! There is no doubt that BETA will make sure to come back again for a third year in a row next spring!