Water Careers

In the coming weeks, we are launching a short series highlighting various water careers in Illinois. While this series is part of our mission to aid the entry of young professionals and students into the water sciences, we also felt that this could provide some follow-up to our school visits and allow us to help contextualize various water issues in Illinois. For example, if you read in the news that the water quality in Metro-East results in fish that are unsafe for human consumption wouldn’t you like to know about the type of people who discover that information? Likewise, if you are 10 and get a classroom visit from a scientist who studies water bugs, but you are terrified of water bugs, wouldn’t you also like to know what other career alternatives are out there?

Thus, in no particular order, we intend to examine the world of fish biologists, sanitation engineers, professors, and anyone else who will sit down and chat with us. If you think you have a snazzy water career and would like to be profiled (first on the blog, eventually in the collections on our website), please shoot me an email at cmlay@illinois.edu.    

School Visits

This past Friday, I crawled out of my academic ivory tower, dusted off my social skills, and paid a visit to the 5^th and 6^th grade science classes as Cesar E. Chavez Multicultural Academic Center in Chicago to chat about being a scientist. I was treated like a celebrity. I can’t wait to go back!

I should probably mention that my sister teaches at Chavez, and I was such an object of wonder because the students adore my sister. Still, it was a great ego boost, considering that I had brought trash as my object lesson. We used the trash to talk about how long it would take different items to decay and where the trash would end up if it were washed into Chicago’s stormwater system. Regardless, what kind of mean visitor brings in old (clean) milk jugs and gives them to kids?

Well folks, I’m a scientist, and I did. But mostly I told the students about being a scientist. I shared pictures with them and told them about the fieldwork in 8-degree weather in the middle-of-nowhere that earned me my MS. They wanted to know if I was ever scared, and, also, did the water bugs bite my hands? And furthermore, why did my sister have yellow hair and I had brown? Try explaining genetics to an audience that hasn’t studied Punnett Squares, yet. Actually, I dare you, do try it.

While I taught a lesson, the science teachers didn’t need my help to do their jobs—what they really wanted was to introduce these students to a real, live scientist. I was there to tell these students about all the options and adventures a career in science had given me and to suggest that science could open doors for them, too.

We like to joke that scientists and engineers don’t have good social skills, and that’s why we’re terrible at outreach. But visiting this school didn’t take a lot of skill. It took a smile, one pretty lame story, and a desire to answer questions on my part, and the kids did the rest. What do you think: do you like this model of outreach, or would you rather participate in a more formal setting, like a science expo? 

Rivers in Illinois History

Lately, I've been completely sucked in by Northwestern's Medill Reports. One of their recent stories highlighted the role the Chicago River has played in the rise of Chicago, beginning as a shallow stream in a swamp and becoming a busy shipping corridor. The full story is available here and well worth the read.    

But, it also reminded me of a great report sitting in IWRC's archives which chronicles the development of waterways all over Illinois. An Annotated Bibliography of Observations on Illinois Water Resources 1673 to 1850 was produced by history professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1966 and contains quotes for the early explorers of Illinois, like this observation of the Illinois River from Marquette:

"We have seen nothing like this river that we enter, as regards its fertility of soil, its prairies and woods; its cattle  [buffalo], elk, deer, wildcats, bustards, swans, ducks, parroquets, and even beaver.  That on which we sailed is wide, deep, and still, for 65 leagues.  In the spring and during part   of the Summer there is only one portage of half a league  [at   Chicago]."