Geosciences rock first open day

Fossils, meteors and Mars absorbed top Johannesburg matrics last week in an open day that Wits Geosciences hopes will draw more students to study Geology. “Geoscience companies are banging down my door saying ‘where are your graduates?’” said Senior lecturer Dr Susan Webb. The Exploring Earth open day, held during the university break, was a first for the School of Geosciences. The School recognised a need to expose high school students to earth science before they applied for university, and to attract top performing students. Around 50 students were invited from the top 25 feeder schools in Johannesburg and were split into teams to compete in the five challenges of the day. The first challenge was to match the microscopic image of a rock to its life-sized partner. The wide-eyed students were free to interact with the rocks and minerals, the microscope samples and the machine itself.

“It’s good fun, this,” said Cameron Dry (above right) from St John’s College, who wanted to be a fighter pilot before a vocational training session convinced him otherwise. “I love science. I just never thought I could have a career in it.” On the library lawns, the students used a mallet to hit a metal plate in the geoscience equivalent of a carnival Strongman game.

“The hammer was really heavy,” said Jeppe Girls’ pupil Athena Tsai. A computer collected information about the hit for the students to use in calculating the thickness of the soil below. Next, the students used Google Earth to explore the surface of this planet, and Mars, before sitting down to a free lunch in the Bleloch Geological Museum.

Prof Lew Ashwal headed up the meteorite challenge with an array of space rocks worth around R500 000. He told them meteorites were important because “they’re cool” and “they’re worth a f**k lot of money”. He said people often phoned him, thinking they had found a meteorite. But “nine times out of ten it’s a ‘meteowrong’”.

The last challenge was for pupils to reconstruct a skeleton from loose fossils after briefly studying a complete version.

“Judging by the students’ reactions [today] was a success,” said PhD candidate and associate lecturer Grant Bybee, who had manned the microscope challenge. The winning team members each received a mineral box worth about R300.

Photos: Anina Minnaar

Published on Vuvuzela online, 15 April 2012

Earth science desperate for quality students

Wits Geosciences are appealing to quality science students to enrol for undergraduate degrees in Geology, citing a chronic shortage of earth science professionals in South Africa.

Dr Susan Webb , gravity specialist in the School of Geosciences, said high school students seem unaware of the geology degree when they apply for university.

Even though 150 first year students are enrolled for the geology undergraduate degree this year, the biggest group in a while, Webb said that for many it was not their first choice and some are repeating the year.

Many top maths and science students seem to choose non-science degrees. “Of the top feeder schools [to Wits], none went into science,” she said. They may choose actuarial science or engineering careers over geology but some end up in geology after rejection from those courses.

Wits needs quality undergraduate students to produce excellent postgraduates and career-ready graduates, said Webb. To remedy the current lack of interest, the School of Geosciences will have an open day called “Exploration Earth” on April 5 where high school students and teachers will be exposed to the field.

“Who wouldn’t want to do this job?”

“Who wouldn’t want to do this job?” asked geochemistry Prof Lewis Ashwal , explaining that geoscience is one of the few careers where you get paid to travel and spend time outdoors. Even an academic career has its benefits – “you should see my car and my hot tub,” he joked.

He concurred with Webb that geoscientists are needed in South Africa’s economy. Wits provides the only internationally recognised programme in southern Africa and its graduates feed the oil, mineral, engineering and water discovery industries, which are all important for development.

Another difficulty in recruiting good students is that undergraduate majors are declared very early on in South Africa, when students may not yet have a clear idea of the career they want to pursue. This is in contrast to the American system where students specialise after a few years of study.

“When I was a [first year] student, I wanted to have sex, drugs and rock ’n roll,” said Ashwal, who studied in America and only decided on geology when he was 20.

First year students at Wits have to enrol for three years of geology, maths, chemistry and physics for the best chance of postgraduate studies in geosciences.

Published on Vuvuzela online 20 March 2012.