22 Everyday Geoscience (Posters)

This session will focus on elevating the importance of geoscience through geoscience education (e.g., curricula development, leading fieldwork experiences, etc.) and/or convergence research (e.g., using community-focused research frameworks/methods, community-engaged research, etc.).

Tuesday, 19 May 2026
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Alvarado D/E

From Field Notes to Visual Narratives: Media Integration into International Geological Student Research Fine Arts, and Environmental Geology Disciplines

Paper number: 22-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 8:00 AM

Authors

Abstract

The National Science Foundation’s International Research Experience for Students (IRES) program supports international research and research-related activities for U.S. science and engineering students to develop of a diverse, globally engaged workforce with world-class skills. This work documents the Summer 2025 NMHU media artists’ contributions to IRES Track 1: International Research Experiences for Students: Phase II: Into the Magmatic Roots: Interactions Between Magmatism, Tectonics, and Sedimentation (NSF Award # 2245854) with particular attention to the formal introduction of graphic design and digital illustration into the 2025 cohort. The study examines how field-based visual storytelling and design translation can increase public engagement with complex geologic research. Working alongside geoscience teams in the Czech Republic and Poland, media participants often assisted with field logistics, including taking and relaying global positioning system (GPS) coordinates during mapping, transporting rock samples from active quarries, and assisting in documenting stratigraphic sections and structural measurements in real time. Field documentation included cinematography, photography, drone footage, and interviews with the participants and mentors. New methods included the integration of graphic design workflows: vector-based images that help reconstruct processes not directly visible with camera footage. These illustrative components were developed from the geologic field notes and mentor consultation to ensure conceptual accuracy while improving visual legibility for nonspecialist audiences. The coverage conveys not only the physical practice of field geology, but also the conceptual frameworks used to understand it. While cameras captured the embodied experience—boots on unstable slopes, coordinates called across quarry walls—design interventions translated invisible structures, deep time, and three-dimensional deformation into clear visual systems. Informal feedback from a campus screening suggests increased curiosity about Earth science research and stronger recall of sampling procedures after engaging with the combined documentary and graphic materials. Viewers reported that illustrated overlays and narrative storytelling clarified relationships that static images alone could not convey. This study concludes that integrating graphic design and illustrative practice into geologic field documentation strengthens the communicative power of international research initiatives without altering their scientific methodology. By making both the process and the unseen structures of Earth science visible, this work invites broader public participation in understanding natural systems and geologic change.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 58, No. 4

doi: 10.1130/abs/2026RM-410708

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