Patrick Harrington Participates in GEOFYRST Field Experience

2016 Aug 31

Patrick Harrington of West Seneca, NY, learned to identify rocks, collect data and take field notes--before even opening a college textbook.

Harrington participated in GEOFYRST (Geologic Experience Outdoors: the First Year Regional Summer Trip), SUNY Oneonta's six-day pre-semester geology field trip for new students, from Aug. 18-24. Freshmen and new transfer students moved in on Aug. 24, and classes started Aug. 29.

Harrington, a graduate of West Seneca West High School, plans to major in Earth Science.

Now in its10th year, GEOFYRST gives freshmen their first real field experience--and a chance to bond with other new students, faculty and upperclassmen while hiking, setting up tents and roasting marshmallows.

Accompanied by two faculty members and a teaching assistant from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, the students explored a variety of geological processes in New York. This year's itinerary included stops at Vroman's Nose, an ice-gouged cliff 600 feet above the Schoharie Valley; Petrified Sea Gardens, a 490-million-year-old fossil sea floor near Saratoga Springs; Whiteface Mountain, one of the High Peaks in the Adirondack Mountains and the fifth highest mountain in New York state; and Starks Knob, a basaltic pillow lava formation near Schuylerville.

The trip is open to all incoming freshman and transfer students, regardless of their intended major. In addition to getting to know other new students and developing field research skills in a fun environment, participants earn lab credit toward GEOL 120, an introductory geology course the students are taking together this semester.