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Field Trip to the Falls

Journalists
Jul 24, 20192 min read

By: Jaley Adkins


Denise Owens’ general studies class is focused on discussing societal and political issues, so scholars were apprehensive when told they would be conducting a lab experiment at Falls of the Ohio State Park in Indiana as part of the National Youth Science Summit.

After arriving at the park, scholars hiked across rocks and sand to get to the beach area. From the beach, scholars were impressed and awed by the beauty of the rapids, but were distraught to see the amount of litter on the shores. Groups of scholars led by Marissa Morvai made an effort to contribute to the clean up of the shores before conducting the lab.

With buckets of supplies in hand, groups began their lab to research micro-plastics found on the shores of the Falls of the Ohio. Students dug one inch deep 10cm x 10cm squares, filtered the sand out, and put the remains in a clear container. They repeated this twenty-five times, traveling in a parallel line across the shore.

After completing their lab experiment, scholars headed to the University of Louisville Conn Center for Renewable Energy and the Speed School of Engineering for a tour.

“The tour at U of L opened my eyes to the diverse field of chemical engineering. There are tons of job options available in that field that I wouldn’t have even known existed if we hadn’t went on this tour,”

scholar Logan Turner said.

Following the tour, scholars went to a classroom in the Speed School of Engineering to analyze their micro-plastics data before shipping off their results to the United Kingdom.

The busy day continued from there as the scholars went to Genscape for a speed dating mentor session with STEM professionals.

“The speed mentoring session definitely provided me with helpful information that I will be using as I apply to colleges and think about my major and future career,”

scholar Shria Holla said.

The scholars benefited greatly from participating in the National Youth Science Summit. Most left with useful information, new knowledge about different career options, and a desire too help clean up rivers and oceans. This field trip accomplished one of the Governor’s Scholars Program’s main goals, giving scholars opportunities to explore different fields to help guide them into a trajectory of success in life.





 
 
 

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Faculty

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Jennifer Price grew up in Hopkins County, Kentucky and attended South Hopkins High School. She was a Governor’s Scholar at Murray State University in 1992, and was assigned the Social and Political Theory focus area. After high school, she attended Transylvania University and pursued a degree in Psychology. She finished her bachelor’s degree and then decided to complete graduate school at the University of Arkansas, where she received a doctoral degree in clinical psychology. She has been a member of the GSP faculty and staff for many years, ranging from 1994 to present. She has done every job available except be a focus area instructor. Jen was recently encouraged by her friends to begin running and even completed a half marathon last may. Jen is a wife to Pete, and a mother to two children, Jacob (15) and Eli (12).

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Josh Woodward was a 1992 scholar at Murray State University. After completing undergraduate school at the University of Kentucky, Josh obtained a Masters in Water Resources from Minnesota and a Masters in Teaching from Cornell University. Outside of the program, Josh teaches a variety of science classes at Berea Community High School. When asked about his favorite part of the program, Josh responded with, “My favorite part is the notion that the five weeks is not really the program. It is everything after.” Nearly thirty years later, Josh and his fellow scholars are still close friends. 

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Helen Heines grew up in Shepherdsville, Kentucky, which is in Bullitt County. She attended North Bullitt High School where she applied and was accepted to attend GSP at Murray State University in 2010. Upon graduation in 2011, she continued her education at Western Kentucky University with a degree in elementary education. Currently, Helen is a 5th grade social studies teacher in Louisville, and spends her summers deeply involved in the GSP community. She began working as a Resident Advisor (RA) at Bellarmine University in 2015. She began moving up the ranks to become head RA and then later she obtained the title of Assistant Campus Director, a title that she still holds. 

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