I ran home to grab my gaming system so we could have something to do at night while the rest of the team was having breakfast. -Jose

There were posters from middle schoolers doing some pretty cute experiments. There was one looking into the myth of the dumb blonde with the conclusion that blondes are actually smarter. -Jessica

I learned so much! At GSA, most some of the talks went over my head… I had trouble really understanding the point of many lectures. Not because they had no point, but simply because I’m an undergraduate student with a degree in environmental science, not geology. At IAS, many of the talks were geared towards the layman. I came away feeling very positively about what I had learned. -Bobbi

My favorite part was the poster session, I think it was really cool how well-represented UNI was at IAS this weekend. The BETA team and the other space grant students had plenty of posters to share with the community and it was cool that we had so much research to report on. A lot of people were very interested in our project so that was encouraging too! I believe that the conference added to my confidence in presenting research! -Carissa

My favorite part of the day was presenting and seeing other people’s research topics. This conference incorporates all fields of science and brings people together under the huge umbrella of science. It was great to talk to fellow colleagues and see the different areas of research that people are interested in. I went into this conference with an open mind to see and learn from people from all areas of science. -Steven

Our presentation went very well, and we had a lot of people who recognized that scientists in the past were trying to discover what we’re discovering, now, fifty years ago! [My favorite part was] presenting and giving our website address to various people who we had talked to, so that they could keep with us on our research. It was last my conference for my undergraduate career, and I really wanted to present one last time with the group!
​-Brittnie

The poster session went really well. A lot of people were interested in hearing about our research and we did a good job of explaining our goals and progress thus far. I wanted to get more practice in presenting research to large groups of people from different scientific backgrounds. It gave me more confidence with presenting and explaining our research to other people. Though we have done this a good number of times at this point, it’s always good to get more practice. -Katie

So many posters! There was really a good collection of all kinds of science research presented at the conference. Biology, physics, chemistry, geology! I think that this is why many of the lectures and posters were easy for me to understand. At the chemistry conference, they had no reason to suspect non-chemists would attend. Here, people had to tailor their presentations under the assumption that perhaps a biologist would be at their talk about geomorphological features in Southwest Iowa... I was much better at speaking this time! -Bobbi

The poster session was very successful. We had 4 posters and each was visited and from what I heard people were curious about the project and were excited to see more as it came along. This research is really Iowa focused. It was important to bring to a major Iowa science conference to really get the word out about BETA to other Iowans. Plus we thought it would be a receptive crowd and it was. The poster session continued to help my ability to communicate, but in regards to my major, there was a teaching session with talks about science teaching in Iowa which was awesome to attend. -Jessica

We went to present our research to the scientific community in Iowa. At the beginning of the poster presentation I was a little nervous, but as the time went on I was able to inform the audience about the actinometry study. Jessica and I eventually divided the poster into two parts, I presented the background and procedure and explained lamp performance.      ​-Jose

The dinner that they fed us was so fancy that us college students didn’t really know what we were eating! But it was fun to try knew things and to accidentally eat dessert first because I didn’t realize that it was dessert! Oops! -Carissa

Then there was dinner, in which everyone was turned off by whatever that cornbread-mushroom-goat cheese appetizer was. -Bobbi

During the banquet dinner on Friday, we had an appetizer that looked like a dish you would see on the show Chopped and no one else at the table liked it except me. -Jessica

The Pluto talk! It’s so fascinating how geologic processes take place on other worlds. It’s crazy, the things we could never predict. How Pluto’s crust is made of frozen nitrogen ice. And how Pluto’s mountains are made of frozen water, floating on oceans of frozen nitrogen. And how the nitrogen ice acts as a very viscous fluid, and can flow from valleys, into a great ocean… of ice. Also, the cryovolcano they found! It’s so curious. Here, earth’s crust is made of rock, and volcanoes erupt liquid rock. For Pluto, who has a crust made of ice, the volcanoes erupt a slurry of ice! It’s so weird, but absolutely wonderful and curious. -Bobbi

THE KEYNOTE! Dr. Oliver White presented some of the data that has been analyzed by NASA from Pluto. My mind was blown and I had to pick my jaw off the floor after the presentation. We also had 3D glasses to get a different perspective of the images published of the landscape. Seeing the depths of the features was unreal. -Jessica

The Pluto talk was great. It was really interesting how our ideas of what Pluto would be like were completely overturned by a single fly-by. Pluto has so many interesting geological features (ice mountains!) and I’m excited to see what new information comes outs about it in the future. The 3D images of Pluto basically made my night. I loved getting to wear old paper 3D glasses. It brought back some great memories of watching certain movies when I was little. -Katie

Afterwards we went to one of the sketchiest hotels I have ever stayed in. You tried, Baymont. You tried. -Katie

On the way back, Bobbi almost killed me! Let me explain. She was using buttons that controlled the automatic doors to our van so I could get my bag from the back. Well, she opened the doors just fine, but then as I’m about to get my bag, I don’t know what happened but all of sudden, I noticed the back door was going to hit me. I was like, “the doors are closing!” Then, Bobbi hit the button to make the door open. I’m just glad I wasn’t crushed by the door. I never thought the automatic doors of a van could be so dangerous!   -Steven

The van I drove had automatic-open doors, and I got trigger happy. I almost crushed Steven with the trunk door because I was too excited about shutting it.  Sorry, Steven :(
​-Bobbi

We were able to have cool conversations about our struggles as women in STEM and society. It was a bonding experience that I am thankful for. -Carissa

I enjoyed the wide range of style from suits and ties to hawaiian shirts. -Carissa

Saw a lot of flannel. -Brittnie

This was not so much a research convention, but more like a gathering of friends. The community of geologists seems very tight-knit and personal, as well as laid back. -Bobbi

I hit up the table with stickers of the geologic time-scale three times. I don’t even know where to stick them all. I’m too afraid to use them because I like them so much. So I’ll just continue admiring them and imagine myself sticking them on things. -Bobbi

There was a gum-ball machine at steak 'n shake that cost 75 [cents] for these massive gumballs. I put in my 75 [cents], got THREE GUMBALLS, AND A QUARTER BACK. It’s not necessarily a funny story… but I just want people to know that I got THREE GUMBALLS for the price of ⅔ of one gumball...so…. That’s pretty fantastic. -Bobbi

I saw a really interesting talk about the unusual fossil preservation of a species of cnidaria - it preserved well in large-grained siliciclastic rocks rather than carbonates, due to its environment and the amount of energy in the environment at the time it fossilized. It was really cool because it wasn’t what you would generally expect when it comes to the process of fossilization. -Katie

It taught me a lot about finding jobs in my field, and how to go about meeting people in the earth sciences. It really opened my eyes to what the geologic community is like. -Bobbi

As an earth science major, going to GSA was really beneficial for me. I learned about all the different paths that people who study geology are taking, including environmental consulting, research, and industry. Along this line, I was able to make connections with professionals who provided valuable insight into getting a job in this field. -Katie

I really enjoyed the poster presentation. I had never been to a research conference before, so I was a little nervous to be at our poster and answer questions. But nervousness aside, I really enjoyed this part. I had a lot of fun explaining to people the research that we do once I got the hang of it. -Carissa

Wish we had more data from our research, since a lot of people were hoping to know more about our findings. -Brittnie

I need to practice my public speaking! I froze up a few times and had difficulty explaining some parts of the research to those examining the poster. Even though I stumbled to explain the project, many of the listeners were very kind and forgiving. -Bobbi

We received a large amount of positive feedback about the project. A lot of people wanted to see results, but since it's so early in the process we were not able to give them any information. -Jessica​

I wanted to highlight the work that we are doing in Iowa, and also to talk to others who have worked more in the area to get some ideas from them. For example, we spoke with Jed Day and Brian Witzke, who have spent many years studying the Devonian rocks in Iowa, and that was both encouraging and illuminating. -Dr. Sedlacek

Our poster was very well received, and a lot of people are interested in seeing where our research goes in the future. -Katie

I wish I could have taken the group out to eat at a nicer restaurant at some point. We definitely had a lot to celebrate. -Dr. Sedlacek

My favorite lecture was about the first women researchers in Antarctica, and the struggles they had to go through. Even getting to Antarctica was rough, and once they were there, they had to stay 200 miles away from McMurdock base so they wouldn’t “distract the men.” They completed their data collection, despite their natural disadvantages (eye roll), and really opened polar research up for women. -Bobbi

One of the coolest talks in that session was about Ohio State University’s relationship with female researchers going to Antarctica. The process to get the navy to allow females to go there was so tedious it was ridiculous, but hearing about how these female researchers refused to accept the blatant sexism oppressing them was really inspiring. If those women had not succeeded, according to the navy, all women would have been banned from ever going to Antarctica again. -Jessica

It was nice to have a session that highlighted some of the triumphs and challenges that women in the geosciences have faced. One of my graduate student buddies and mentor, Katie Lewendowski, gave a great talk about the role that Ohio State University has played in involving women in Antarctic research. I think a few of our students left that session with aspirations to go down to ‘the ice’ themselves one day. I really hope that they do! -Dr. Sedlacek

My favorite part was how people asked me a lot of questions about research and managing time, when I was talking on the student panel. A lot of students asked for my email and phone number, so that they could keep in touch with me and ask more questions. I felt famous! -Brittnie

The coolest thing was seeing people being interested on what I have been researching.
​-Jose

I went to this specific conference because it’s geared for minority students who are in STEM and provide a lot of networking opportunities to connect with other STEM minority students, faculty and staff. Also, the conference highlights how there’s not a lot of support for minority students in the STEM fields, the adversity that minority and first generation STEM students face, and how we can better support STEM students, faculty and staff of color. ​ -Brittnie

I wouldn’t do anything differently. I really enjoyed my time at the conference. -Brittnie