Have you been itching to get out into nature recently? The Oklahoma Academy of Science’s (OAS) biannual field meeting would be a good opportunity to do so.
The meeting will take place at the Sequoyah State Park near Muskogee, Oklahoma, between Friday, Oct. 6 and Sunday, Oct. 8. All activities will take place at the Group Campground and can include but are not limited to field trips, bird walks, social hours, and presentations.
USAO is providing 12 spots free to any interested students – first come, first serve. To sign up and attend the OAS meeting, email Rachel Jones, dean of the school of science and physical education, at rjones@usao.edu. Additionally, anyone within the community can attend for a fee. Lodging is included within that fee.
Dr. Jason Shaw, professor of biology, has attended five or six OAS field meetings and has a pretty good understanding of how they go about things.
“Friday night with start with orientation stuff, and then maybe some night field trips, and then more field trips Saturday all day. They have bird walks, mammal talks, anthropology stations, geology stations,” Dr. Shaw said. “Whatever your interest is scientifically, it’s likely there.”
In the past when OAS field meetings have been attended by groups of USAO students, no two people ever had the same experience.
“When we go as groups with students, we never stay together, we all spread out everywhere. It’s a way to get people outside, to get them to learn more about stuff they may not know about. It’s a way to increase your knowledge in lots of different aspects of science,” Dr. Shaw said.
In addition to the field meeting, OAS hosts an annual technical meeting in November of each year. This year, however, it is being hosted at USAO, which hasn’t happened in 20 years. This will take place largely in Austin Hall, with classes being either cancelled or moved to other on-campus buildings at the professor’s discretion.
This technical meeting will include oral and poster presentations, as well as a luncheon with a key note speaker. Graduate students, faculty, and even undergraduate students from across the state will be attending this meeting to present research they’ve done.
“Sometimes conference people aren’t very nice to you,” Dr. Shaw said. “They try to make you feel dumb or argue with you, but at the OAS meetings, in my experience, everyone has been nice and helpful in correcting things or bringing things up.”
Bea Bourland is a second-year biology and environmental science major at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma.
