在地球和环境科学领域, faculty and investigators recognize a problem with self-replication in their disciplines due to a historical tendency to recruit students whose traits and backgrounds resemble their own. Dr. 克里斯汀·西道威意识到了这一点 that the issue is even more of a concern for polar science and is determined to study this further in her ongoing work with bedrock geology in Antarctica.
西道威有一个改变的愿景. She believes in nurturing the next generation of polar re搜索ers without pushing them into the same molds that have stifled innovation for years. "I've been offering courses that provide opportunities for Antarctic re搜索," she says. "And the students can choose to register for these courses based on their own interest in the subject, 而不是通过我的劝说.”
不像传统的以讲座为基础的课程, Siddoway's students delve into experiments with uncertain outcomes. They learn techniques and use specialized instrumentation to obtain data, 然后获得解释数据的第一手经验. Siddoway believes that hands-on experience is the key to sparking genuine interest in polar studies.
"这是极地科学的第一次,西道威说, 她的眼睛因兴奋而闪闪发光, "investigators are beginning to identify the interrelationships between the ice sheet and the bedrock, 它在南极洲和格陵兰岛出现了, where the ice sheets are going away due to climate warming."
Siddoway’s work is focused on unraveling the mysteries of the bedrock beneath the ice. "The bedrock of West Antarctica essentially was not known until gains in knowledge obtained since the 1970s or so,她说。. “CC students who initially worked on-continent with me were a part of just getting the outcrop geology down. 现在的工作是关于冰下的东西. 我们看不见的地质是什么?"
Siddoway热情地谈论着她的工作, it’s clear that she is not only dedicated to her re搜索 but also to the education and empowerment of future scientists. Her courses are not just an opportunity for students to learn but a chance to be part of something groundbreaking, 照亮了冰下看不见的世界, and helping address new priorities in the ever-evolving field of polar re搜索.
Siddoway, 她的学生, and CC alumni have joined in developing a ground-breaking geospatial resource for Antarctic re搜索, 开辟了了解这片冰冻大陆的新途径. They, and an international team coordinated by GNS Science, Aotearoa-New Zealand, created GeoMAP南极洲 to be the first detailed digital database that collates all the existing geological data of Antarctica.
在线, open-access geological data already exists for the other continents worldwide, and is crucial for comprehending and predicting the swift global transformations occurring on our planet. The alterations in the Antarctic ecosystem are progressing at a faster pace than in other areas. 因此, there was an immediate requirement to expedite the creation of GeoMap Antarctica's precise digital archive of the known surface geology of the continent. This resource will serve as an invaluable open-access asset, offering immediate and enduring value to re搜索ers in the present and the future.
创建南极地形图, students and alumni applied skills gained through CC courses to extract information from 20th 世纪手绘地图, 数字化硬拷贝区域地图, 然后将信息融入现代, high-resolution datasets within a geospatial data framework.
西蒙•考克斯, the project leader hailing from GNS Science in Aotearoa-New Zealand, describes GeoMAP as a sort of Antarctic geology Wikipedia. “我们有意将GeoMAP作为一个基础, 整个欧洲大陆, and open-access collection of datasets of geological information, 编译成一个现代的映射框架. 我们相信GeoMAP将被用于, 并随着, 未来世界范围内的广泛研究,考克斯说。.
贝琳达·史密斯·利特尔, GNS科学公司的首席数据架构师, highlights GeoMap as a resource not only for geologists but for glaciologists and climate scientists who are documenting ice sheet change. GeoMAP has been designed with the flexibility to evolve and improve over time, 适应新的研究成果.
Publishing this database involved international cooperative work by geologists from seven Antarctic programs and 14 nations. Of the 29 co-authors, seven are from USA and five are graduates or faculty of CC.
Several alumni became involved in the Antarctic geospatial and BigData project while they were undergrads at CC, and the participation for two of them was funded by the Witter Family Fund for internships in Geology. Three are now employed in geology or fields related to the work of their internships. 山姆·艾尔金德，16岁, 这个项目的第一个CC参与者, was supported by the Witter Family internship in its inaugural year. Elkind remained directly involved in the work of the Antarctic geological project throughout its full duration. He received his master’s in Computer Science from Georgia Tech, gaining skills in coding and software design that he brought to bear on the international Antarctic dataset being released in 科学数据. His contributions are so great that he is listed third in the authorship of the work being published in the 自然 刊物系列. Other CC co-authors are Lexie Millikin ’17, Tristan White ’18, and Paul Morin ’15.