HOUSTON GEM AND MINERAL SHOW
On November 7-9, 2014, the HGS K12 booth and multiple volunteers came to the Houston Gem and Mineral Show where 1500 school kids came through on field trips on Friday while Saturday had several hundred Boy and Girl Scouts working on geology badges. Sunday was also busy with families in attendance. The kids, the parents, and the volunteers all had fun and learned from the experience – see the grins in the photos. It was great when the kids were saying under their breaths..."I love this place!"
Volunteers included Jim Flis, Huw James, Gerrit Wind, Linda Sternbach, Michelle Pittenger, Savannah Pittenger, Laura Lee Stanley, Bev De Jarnett, Nancy Engelhardt-Moore, Julia Waldsmith, Sara Heinlein, Alicia Kahn, and Janet Combes. The HGS display area was shared with that of the Houston Museum of Natural Science; Inda Immega, chair of the HGS Museum committee, made arrangements for the joint area, and saw that it was set up in an easy flow pattern. Neal Immega distributed fossil sharks teeth at that end of the hall and Tom and Melva DuBois and Karen Oganowski staffed the HMNS activities.
At this event there were more rock salt samples to give away provided by the Hockley Salt Mine, again very popular. Finding out that it was from a mine near Houston was very interesting to kids and the adults. Hand lenses, donated by OXY Petroleum, were used by the visitors on the various rock samples on display. THANKS to the United Salt Corporation’s Hockley Salt Mine and to OXY Petroleum.
Another popular part of the HGS area was the display of 3-D maps – with the 3-D glasses – provided by Jim Flis. The HGS petroleum exploration posters were the subject of several of the questions in the students and scouts lists to answer. Undergraduate students from both Rice University and the University of Houston attended with extra-credit exercises that included questions for the HGS geologists, which frequently led to longer discussions on geology as a career.
Overall, a busy three days, with multiple groups, and many questions, and a lot of grins and excitement and interest.