(ZOOM) Digging Into the Stories of Sand

By Kate Clover,
International Sand Collectors Society,
Geological Society of Minnesota

Friday, April 26, 2024, 7:00 PM CDT

6:45 PM CST: Meet and Greet

7:00 PM CST: Presentation
Sands from around the world vary greatly in both their rock and mineral and bioclastic content. Other samples contain grains that record past industry and commerce. This talk will highlight very different locations. We'll talk history, geography, geology, marine biology and identify grains.

Prepare to meet: barnacles, bryozoans, forams, red coralline alga, urchin spines, brick and coal. Plus Devonian microfossils.

Bio Sketch:
Kate Clover retired in 2016 after 26 years at the Science Museum. She served as a program manager and the geo-science educator. She developed interactive activities for exhibits linked exhibit themes to cultural and natural resources, geology, flora and fauna, foods and history. She also developed the Collectors' Corner, a trading post where kids of all ages could bring in objects from nature (ie. rocks, shells, bones, sands, insects), earn points for their knowledge and object, then use those points to get other objects. She also curated the sand collection.

Kate considers herself a life-long learner and loves doing deep-dive research projects. Many of her project involve sands, something she's been interested in since childhood. Kate loves looking at sands under the microscope (a vintage American Optical stereo zoom scope) and figuring out what the grains are and what story the grains are telling about the local and regional geology, marine ecosystem, and native history and modern industrial history.

She is co-author of the Splendid Sands Calendar. Together with Leo Kenney (photographer and graphic designer), Carol Hopper Brill (marine biologist and writer) and herself (geologist and writer), they publish the calendar. From the calendar project's inception in 2008, their goal has been to illustrate the beauty of sands and to explain the science, history and geography behind the samples.

Kate also writes for and edits the Geological Society of MN newsletter, plus she serves on the board. She is also assistant editor for the International Sand Collectors' Society Newsletter.

Kate has a BS in Geology and Technical Writing from Michigan Tech and a MS is Science Education from UW-River Falls. She studied Marine Science through Clemson University.