Campus Information Specialist and IVCC graduate Carey Burns had wanted to be a geologist since she was little, and she was a bit disturbed by the state of the Geology exhibit in the lab area of Building A.
Burns said, “Every time I would walk through the tunnels, I would always see that it was in bad shape, and then I thought it just needs to be spruced up.
“The last couple years it was bothering me, so I asked my boss if I could do it. He said ‘Ask the dean’ and the dean said, ‘Ask Mike [Phillips]’ and he said ‘Yes’ so I worked on it over the summer from June until August.”
In terms of the display itself, Phillips, the Geology instructor at IVCC since 1997, said, “Last May, [Burns] asked me if it would be okay if she came in and fixed or re-curated the display. She reorganized everything into nice little groups, easy to understand. She purchased with her own money some of the stands and cards in there. Everything you see here is the effort of Carey Burns.”
The rocks in question were unlabeled, unorganized or packed away in boxes. Phillips plans to use the display as a teaching asset for his classes and to send students down to look at the samples
Materials in the display include minerals such as the state mineral fluorite, pyrite, quartz, calcite, gypsum, coal, pseudo-fossils, real fossils, stalactites, and more.
Samples were collected from various sources, including donations from former students and community members, Phillips’s predecessor Frank Smut, purchases by the college, and some leftover materials from construction.
“I found rocks stuffed in the weirdest places, including a vintage Crisco jar that Mike told me I could keep as a memento.” Burns said, “I feel a bit of pride knowing I can walk past that display and know I did that.”