This section of my website is dedicated to projects that did not involve field work, but instead were composed purely of information that I researched, or personally determined, from various sources. These projects involved verification of data, as well as extrapolation about how different ideas fit together.
This is an essay that I wrote on the definition and uses of the mineral apatite as a part of my mineralogy course. I was assigned a mineral to independently research, and compile my findings about that mineral into a technical scientific paper. This paper was written in the GSA style, and was designed to communicate the basic information about the mineral in a way that would be easy for an unfamiliar reader to understand, as well as being formatted properly and detailed enough to be suitable for an audience that has a scientific background in geology. This project helped me to refine my communication skills, as well as my research skills and familiarity with the format and customs of a technical essay. During the process of researching my paper, I had to cross reference sources and evaluate what to do with information that appeared to be conflicting. I was able to determine what pieces of information were simply poorly communicated, and refine those pieces to be more easily understood; it was also important to determine what information was simply incorrect and should not be included in the essay. I also learned to filter out irrelevant sources and information, as many sources that were reputable and conveyed accurate information did not discuss apatite in a way that was relevant to my essay. This essay presented a good chance to practice ensuring that my own writing stuck strictly to the aspects of apatite that I was responsible for researching and reporting on, helping to keep the information that I communicated to the audience accurate and concise. With so much information available on apatite, I found it a fun challenge to sift through the different sources and find the ones that worked best in my essay.
This is a presentation that I developed as an assignment to connect ideas and principles of environmental science with wider societal impacts and applications. When I was crafting this presentation, I put a lot of thought into how to stylize the slideshow to look professional yet simple without any potentially distracting features. In the end, I went with a minimalistic aesthetic that was mostly focused on the text font to draw the eye and bring the visuals together, with a simple blue background that I found to be appealing but not overly complicated.