Penn State Soil Judging Takes 6th in Group Judging at 51st National Contest

Over the week of April 27, the Penn State Soil Judging team took 6th place in "group judging" (out of 22 teams) at the 51st National Collegiate Soil Judging Contest in Bend, Oregon. The contest consists of two events, "individual judging" and "group judging". In individual judging, students work alone to describe the morphology, classify, and interpret land use suitability of three different soils. In group judging, the whole team works together to evaluate 2 different soil profiles.

The team consisted of students Kathryn Clark, Elizabeth Dannerth, John Driscoll, Kyle Medash, Stephen Rhodes, and Austin Young. Stephen Rhodes finished the highest for Penn State in individuals at 34th out of 84 students.

This year's contest saw quite an extreme variability in weather. By the start of the contest Friday morning, approximately 2 inches of snow had fallen at the contest site. This in contrast to the beautiful sunny and 60 F weather students had for the group judging event Saturday. More than 100 students competed in the contest.

Prior to the contest, students practiced on soil profiles in the region of the contest site. In addition, the Penn State students took advantage of a tour of the surrounding Bend area, which started at the top of Mt. Bachelor Ski Area.

A special thanks for running the contest to Ron Reuter at OSU-Cascades Campus, and Jay Noller and Will Austin of the Crop and Soil Sciences Dept. at Oregon State Univ. in Corvallis.

The contest received some great press. An article was featured in the Bend Bulletin in which Penn State team member Austin Young is quoted, and which also featured current Penn State graduate student in Soil Science Michael Marsicano (who competed for Delaware Valley College).

Two TV stations also covered the contest. One of the clips has Stephen Rhodes (Penn State) in it several times.

http://www.ktvz.com/video/27734154/index.html

http://news.opb.org/

Penn State Soil Judger wins NOAA Hollings Scholarship

This Spring, ERM major (soil science option) Kathryn Clark (pictured in the center of this photo) was notified that she won the NOAA Hollings Scholarship. The scholarship was created in 2005 to honor Senator Ernest F. Hollings of South Carolina. Its purpose is to encourage undergraduate students to pursue research in oceanic and atmospheric sciences, promote environmental literacy, and prepare students for government careers in the natural sciences and in science education. The awards provides undergraduates with up to $8000 a year for two years of study and a internship between junior and senior years with a stipend of $6500. The internship will be at a NOAA facility and will involve a research project while working with a NOAA mentor. The student will then present their project at a NOAA conference following the internship.

Kathryn says, "the internship can be with any of the NOAA organizations, and the one I hope to work with is the National Marine Fisheries Service. The Fisheries Service includes coastal habitat management such as protection of biodiversity in estuaries and coastal wetlands, as well as protection of marine species such as whales and sea turtles. I will be offered a variety of internship opportunities to choose from in Fall 2011. There are science centers everywhere from Maine to Hawaii that I can chose from."

Congratulations Katie!