Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

075— A Test Of The Efficacy Of The Augmented Reality Sandbox To Improve Students' Reading Topographic Map Skills, Megan Jankowiak, Alexandra Ranaudo

GREAT Day Posters

The augmented reality (AR) sandbox is a teaching tool used to connect two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) map representations through modeling. Our hypothesis is: the AR sandbox is effective at teaching topographic map reading skills by comparing pre vs. post test scores. Student data was processed to analyze the efficiency of using the AR sandbox to increase student ability to read topographic maps. Data consists of student answers on a topographic map reading skills test at the beginning and the end of a Historical Geology college course. Between tests, students used the AR sandbox to complete short exercises during multiple …

201— Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Within The Department Of Geological Sciences At Suny Geneseo, Maria Leonard

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The field of Geosciences historically has lacked diversity. This lack of diversity is observed at all levels of higher education—for example, 90% of doctoral degrees are awarded to white people (Wilson, 2016) and only 3.8% of tenured or tenure track positions at the top 100 geoscience departments are held by faculty of color (Bernard & Cooperdock 2018). There are multiple reasons at the heart of this issue including the lack of representation which can fuel stereotype threats and imposter syndromes.

This project aimed to take actions that would help grow the diversity, equity, and accessibility within Geneseo’s GSCI department. This …

328— Watershed Analysis Of The Eberswalde Delta (Early Hesperian), Mars, Jason Mueller

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The Eberswalde Delta is an impressive Martian fluvial-deltaic system. It is fed by an Earth-like dendritic river system that indicates past precipitation. This study is designed to quantify controls on network morphometry and its past extent using Esri ArcMap. Upstream contributing area (km2), elevation (m), depth (m), width (m), W/D ratio, and slope (-m/m), were calculated and graphed by stream order and long profiles. Width/depth increased with distance downstream but fluctuated in the fifth-order channel that was convex with knickpoints. This implied the system was youthful. The fourth-order stream was concave and in a sedimentary sub-basin. This sub-basin may have …

344— Wetland Soil, Abigale O'Connor

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This project classified soil properties in the vicinity of a wetland in Livonia, NY. Soil cores were collected from the margin of the wetland to observe the changes in the soil profiles across the transition between the wetland and the surrounding forested land. Soil horizons were delineated based on texture and color. Individual horizons were then correlated between the cores to capture spatial changes in thickness and texture. The core descriptions and the correlations were digitized to create an archive of correlations around the wetland for future reference. The distribution of wetland soil textures contributes to better understanding how water …

024— Optimizing 3d Model Construction Of Rock And Fossil Specimens To Increase Accessibility In An Online Learning Environment, Jaclyn Barreca, Frazer Bourgeois

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Three-dimensional modeling of physical objects has become increasingly applicable in the field of geology. A digital collection of samples is important to have in the event of physical loss, as a means to communicate among scientists in reference to a particular sample, to aid in the preservation of original samples, and is particularly relevant in today’s pandemic. Digital models allow for the option of remote learning for students and stops the need for the sharing of physical samples. It also increases accessibility of samples. The problem of generating a 3D model of an object has already been solved; this research …

312— Mineralogical Analysis Of Slag From Iron Production In The Adirondack State Park, Mary Reid, Griffin Rose

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Slag is a byproduct of iron production formed from the melting of iron-bearing rocks. Iron production in the Adirondacks reached a high in the early to mid 1800s, with many blast furnaces in operation throughout Northern New York. Two sets of samples from different regions in the Adirondacks were collected in the summers of 2019-2020. An unknown sample was taken from the Ausable River at Flume Falls near Wilmington, New York, while other samples were collected from the Mt. Hope iron furnace near Fort Ann, New York. Samples were analyzed through the creation of thin sections and x-ray diffraction. Results …

357— Dacryoconarids Of The Genundewa And West River Formations, Upper Devonian In Western New York, Emily De Jong

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The Dacryoconarids, small, thin-walled, and cone-shaped, are an extinct taxon in Class Tentaculitoidea, which is of uncertain affinities. Dacryoconarids were widespread throughout the middle Silurian to the Late Devonian when they went extinct. This study focuses on the lower Upper Devonian Dacryoconarids of the Genundewa and West River formations from western New York State. Samples collected from these formations revealed many smooth shelled Styliolinids, however, no difinitive ribbed Dacryoconarids. Calcite was found to have internally filled in the shell of some Styliolinids, showing how thin the external shell is and raising questions about septa orientations. Due to their global occurrence, …

205— Revisiting The Geologic History Of The Pathfinder Landing Site At Ares Vallis, Mars, Andrew Agent

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Before NASA sent the Pathfinder lander and Sojourner rover to the mouth of Ares Vallis in 1997, they anticipated the discovery of Hesperian-age (3.6 Ga-3.0 Ga) sediments deposited from catastrophic outflows. When pictures came back, the rocks they discovered were large, boulder-size, angular, and were largely inconsistent with transport by large floods. The origin of the deposits at the Pathfinder landing site remains controversial. This study aims to constrain the surface geology of the Pathfinder landing site using new high-resolution imagery and crater statistics. Context Camera (CTX) images along with High-Resolution Imaging Experiment (HiRISE) images were used to map surface …

299— Determining Accuracy Of Xrd From Known Samples, Collin Horrocks

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Powdered x-ray diffraction (XRD) is a technique that has the power to identify minerals and the proportion of the minerals in a mixture. A mineral is defined by a repeatable set of planes between atoms that form the crystal lattice. It is this repetition that allows the process of XRD to work. The process is done by taking a powdered sample and placing it into the machine and then shooting x-rays into the sample causing diffraction. From this using Bragg’s Law we can determine the d-spacing which is how an identity is determined for a sample and the intensity of …

069— Geomorphic Characteristics Of Canadice Lake, Ny, Watersheds And The Anthropogenic Effects On Watershed Output And Sensitivity, Carla Crampton

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Land use and size of watershed catchment areas affects the overall health and water quality of Canadice Lake. Methods in ArcGIS Pro were used for high resolution imagery and topography data to analyze the geomorphology of watersheds at Canadice Lake. Watersheds were mapped using ArcGIS Hydrology tools by constructing flow direction and accumulation grids. In each individual watershed, total area of the watershed, area of residential and agricultural land use, and total length of roads was determined to evaluate which watersheds are most sensitive to human impact and which watersheds are likely to contribute the highest flow discharge and sediment …

200— Chemical Analysis Of Slag From Standish, Ny, Maria Leonard, Dori Farthing

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From 1883 to 1907, magnetite was smelted in Standish, NY. During this time, a large amount of slag, a byproduct of smelting, was created. The slag is now in a pile that covers ~13 acres in the northeastern region of the Adirondacks. The slag at the site has been classified into 6 broad types based on their physical properties. Exemplars of select types were crushed and analyzed by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (XRF). Both major elements and trace element data was collected for these samples. The XRF results indicate that all Standish slag is dominated by SiO2, CaO, and Fe2O3(t) regardless …

366— Mineralogical Analysis Of Iron Slag From Standish, Ny, Rachel Kelk, Dori Farthing

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In the mid 1800’s and into the early 1900’s, Standish, NY was the site of a blast furnace, which extracted iron from the local Adirondack ores. Over the course of 100 years of industrial activity, this forge left behind a large 60 ft tall pile of slag, a byproduct of the smelting processes. This research aimed to better understand the variety of phases present at the site as well as products associated with weathering. Though there are a variety of slag types found in the Standish slag pile, all are chemically dominated by CaO and SiO₂. Powder X-ray …

176— Comparison Of Using A Schmidt Hammer To Evaluate Strength Of Rock To Conventional Methods, Joseph Savoie, Austin Feldman

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A Schmidt hammer is a device designed to test the strength of concrete. More recently, the hammer has been used as a preliminary measure of rock strength. We took readings from the outcrop at Seth Green Drive, Rochester, NY and compared them to a more conventional measurement of strength, fracture density. The correlation of the best fit line relating the Schmidt hammer readings to fractures density was weak (R2=.076). As a result, we concluded that, at least for the strata examined there is no correlation between rock strength as measured by the Schmidt Hammer and fracture density.

253— The Impact Of Physical And Chemical Weathering On Iron Slag From Standish, Ny, Maria Leonard

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From 1883 to 1907, magnetite ore was smelted Standish, NY. During this time, a large amount of slag, a byproduct of smelting, was created. The slag is now in a pile that covers ~13 acres in the northeastern region of the Adirondacks. The impact of weathering is evident through a comparison of samples collected ~15 years ago to partner samples still out in the field which are more fractured and have calcitic weathering rinds. For more quantitative data, we carried out a field experiment and a leaching test. In the field experiment we exposed different slag samples (glassy, chalky, and …

136— Predation On Microbivalves By Juvenile Naticid Gastropods On San Salvador Island, The Bahamas, Eliza Merges

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Predator-prey interactions, where snails eat clams, evolutionarily has been a key interaction within marine molluscan communities. There is evidence of molluscan extinctions in the fossil record that are marked by changes in predation ratios. In this study, we will investigate predation of microbivalves by juvenile naticid gastropods in a shallow marine setting on San Salvador Island in the Bahamas. We propose to test predation density within different environments (facies) of a lagoonal setting. Significantly different ratios between these facies in one time period can indicate that predator-prey interactions can change over time from one environment to another. It is more …

411— Analysis Of Hillslope Stability, Harriman, Tennessee, Walter Hennings, Anthony Wagman

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We seek to conduct a hillslope safety analysis of a hill located in Roane County, Tennessee, composed of the Gilpin-Petros soils. This unit is composed primarily of residuum from sandstone, siltstone, and shale. The stability of the hill was assessed using a one-dimensional infinite slope-stability model. This model was used to calculate the factor of safety under both dry and wet conditions based on a set of assumptions derived from soil lithology and hydrologic parameters. Simulations in ArcGIS show that under dry conditions, the slope is unconditionally stable at all locations. Under conditions of sufficiently heavy rainfall (>9 inches …

279— Magnetic Susceptibility Of Kettle Point Formation, Ontario, Canada, Abigale O'Connor

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The Kettle Point Formation is an Upper Devonian black shale that preserves the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, which marks the most extreme of the three extinction events that comprise the Late Devonian mass extinction. The purpose of this study is to determine a high resolution location of the boundary within the Gore of Chatham core from Ontario, Canada. This determination will improve the understanding of the environmental conditions leading up to the Kellwasser event of the Late Devonian mass extinction. The specific location of the boundary will also improve the ability to correlate this rock unit to others that were deposited during …

226— Analysis Of Soil At A Flooding Site In Avon, Ny, Katie Meerdink, Maddy Waldock

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A residential area in East Avon frequently floods in response to rainfall or snowmelt events and the water remains pooled in place long afterwards. This study seeks to determine the cause of the flooding. Soil samples were collected from several locations at the site and analyzed to determine the array of grain sizes present. It was determined that approximately 47% of the sediment at the site is smaller than 63 microns, which is the threshold for silts and clays (mud), meaning that approximately 53% of the sediment is sand sized or larger. The large amount of smaller grain sizes, combined …