It was mid-day Saturday on October 1st, 2011; our group of six met at the back of the ALS loading dock. Our group consisted of Christy McCarthy (Crop and Soils science major), Patricia Brown (Rangeland Ecology and Management major), Ceely Will (Bioresource research major), Erik Stahla (Construction Engineering major), Thomas White (Natural Resource major), and Matthew Jansen (Animal Science major).
The project coordinator of our group was Doctor Jay Noller. Doctor Noller has been a professor in the department of Crop and Soil Sciences at OSU for ten years. His dedication to his field, earnest interest in answering any and all of our questions, and the demeanor in which he interacted with the environment throughout our project demonstrated a genuine interest in his work and a great passion for nature. The mood of our group as we set out consisted of both a high level of motivation and good spirits. The weather did not share our sentiments, however, as looming, dark clouds and a temperature in the low 60’s persisted throughout the afternoon. As we began our journey Dr. Noller explained to us the mission goals he wished to achieve during our project. First, of course, there was the actual physical maintenance that must be performed to clean up two functioning soil pits. Second, was to give us some history on the soils in each location, types of soils found there, and to explain what type of information is extracted from soil pits, how that is accomplished, and what the information is used for. Finally he stated that he wanted to explain these things in a manner that started out with basic knowledge and worked clear up to a graduate level of understanding. In this way, he said, we would get an idea of both how broad the field of soils is, but also how achievable a higher understanding of soils can be.
No comments:
Post a Comment