News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Tennessee Tech’s Geoclub team won two first-place awards at the 2022 GeoConclave this weekend.
Lab Manager Philip Roberson said GeoConclave is an almost 40-year-long friendly competition for earth sciences and geology departments across the state. He said students take part in both academic and non-academic events, including rock identification and a rock hammer throw.
“The students get to compare themselves with each other, how they’re stacking up against students at other universities,” Roberson said. “And they get to know their peer group. All of these students are going through these programs at roughly the same time. So once everyone graduates, these are the students they’re going to compete against for jobs and grad school positions.
Roberson said they compete against schools like Middle Tennessee State University, University of Tennessee Knoxville, and occasionally Vanderbilt. Tennessee Tech’s team took home the award for first place overall, and first place in the Rock Bowl. The Rock Bowl is a rapid-fire question event that pits teams of four from each college against each other.
Roberson said there’s not necessarily specific preparation for the event. He said the faculty will set up the location and the dates, and it’s on the students to brush up on the knowledge they’ve learned during their courses.
“Just pulling out samples that they’ve studied before and quizzing themselves to make sure they’re fresh on some of the stuff they haven’t taken courses on in a few years,” Roberson said. “There’s no concerted effort among us to really practice, that’s up to the students.”
In addition to the first-place plaques, the Tech team also won second place in Mineral identification by Gabi Burke, first place in Rock identification by Kaiah Whited, second place in Fossil identification by E Vigil, first place in Geologic Maps by Sydney Beltran, and first place in Hydrogeologic Maps by Ben Lane.
