The many dimensions of earth science
"Am I living near a major fault? Am I going to have to deal with earthquakes? Am I on a flood plain? Am I going to have to deal with floods? I find myself thinking about that more than you might think," says a recent graduate who minored in earth science. "It's an interesting perspective." In the earth science minor, says a junior, "you get oceanography, geography, weather, things like that. It touches on all aspects of the earth. You end up tying these fields together, because all of them come from the same thing, the earth." A recent graduate says, "I just loved the topic ever since I was little. My family would be driving somewhere and my mom would quiz me about what we saw in the land about the shape of a valley or the shape of a mountain and what caused it." A professor adds, "I like the idea that people are becoming more acquainted with the geologic environment in which they live."

A hands-on program of study
"I've always been interested in sciences, biology especially. But after I got to Prin I took a few geology classes, since I really enjoyed studying about the earth and how it moves and breathes. We have an area around the campus here that's great for geology — the bluffs and field trips to study rock formations in Missouri. You really have a hands-on experience," says another junior earth science minor, who is also majoring in mass communication with a studio art minor. "I've really enjoyed the courses with hands-on work," says an earth science minor with majors in math and education. "The earth science minor will probably appeal to someone who enjoys experiencing the concepts we learn about instead of just reading from a textbook." A recent graduate adds her perspective, saying, "It was a good blend of lab and standard classroom work. The field trips were great. Even when I was a teaching assistant on the field trips, I never stopped learning."

Earth science complements any major
"The earth science minor is a good accompaniment to other majors, especially environmental science," says a professor. "There's a lot of interest, for instance, in prospecting for water supplies or in engineering geology — understanding earthquakes, flood plains, and other geologic factors when choosing where to build or not build." He mentions the possibility of working with a geo-tech company, many of which are located in California. A recent graduate who works in a consulting services group at Microsoft says, "My earth science minor was more of a hobby minor. But it certainly caught the eye of the interviewers here at Microsoft. It was such an unusual combination — English literature, Spanish language, and a science." A senior says, "I would like to put my math major toward graduate work in meteorology, and the earth science minor is helping me get exposure to entry level meteorology as well as some other areas like geology."

Getting involved off campus
"One of the requirements is to go out to another university or to a summer program or internship to work in a field of the earth sciences — oceanography, geology, weather, for instance. I was able to get an internship with a TV meteorologist at home one summer," says a senior earth science minor. A junior, who says he's learned the basics, the concepts, in his earth science minor, says, "I'll be taking a higher-level mineralogy course at another university to fulfill my off-campus requirement for the minor." A professor adds that the off-campus work could also take the form of a course in paleontology or petrology. Two students recently took a summer geology course at Colorado College.

Earth science can relate to any field
"It's good to know what's actually going on below us. A lot of people, when they hear things on the news about the environment, don't pay attention because they don't know what it means. They think, 'Yeah, I have to recycle,' but they don't understand the effects or causes of it. Earth science gives you a broader sense of whatever you are doing," says a junior minoring in earth science. A recent graduate, who minored in earth science and majored in math, comments that although he chose accounting as a career, his family "owns a monument-making company, and earth science affects that in a big way. They're always working to know a lot about the rock they work with." One recent graduate, an earth science minor and art history major, says her experience as a teaching assistant in earth sciences "gave me my first real teaching experience, and I really have found out that I love to teach. It's probably what I'll end up doing as a career."