To finish out their semester, I facilitated a presentation at Monticello Middle School’s Science Cafe in Monticello, IL in December 2019. Science Cafe is an excellent program that allows students to bring their lunch into one of the science classrooms to hear a presentation from a practicing scientist about what they do, why it matters to the students, and how the students can get involved in science as well.

I did a brief overview of the recent geology around Monticello, including the Cerro Gordo Moraine (“Fat Hill”), the Sangamon River, and several other glacial and pre-glacial features above bedrock. I also showed them some of the possibilities of life as an Earth-scientist, and then showed them some important seismic events captured by the IRIS Transportable Array when one of the system’s seismometers was only five miles from their school.

The a slideshare version of the slideshow is shown below and the full version can be downloaded at the link at the bottom of the page.

(To download presentation, open the link at the button above and save file in preferred format)

Citation: Balikian, R., 2019. The World is at Your Feet: A Career in the Earth Sciences. Oral Presentation at Monticello Middle School. Monticello, IL.