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This show is part of a series exploring Science Moab‘s School to Science Program, connecting students with scientists in the field, the lab, and beyond. This program began in 2021 and to date has mentored over 57 local students. In this episode, we talk with Chris Moriera, a recent graduate of the Grand County Student Career and Success Center and participant in the School to Science Program.
Science Moab: Chris, what interests you about the fields of geology and paleontology?
Moriera: I think what interests me a lot is the community that it has, and they’re also welcoming into the world of geology and paleontology. Having a great community to rely on and knowing that they have your back is a really great thing for me. I think that’s what I look for in a lot of things that I do specifically.
Another thing that I like about it is that we’re able to learn about certain species or genera depending on where or how much information we’ve gotten through bone specimens. Being able to learn what they were doing at that moment—if they were predator, if they were prey, what they ate—just life stuff about that certain animal or creature just through some bones and context clues, that’s really exciting for me.
Science Moab: Chris, not only have you completed one paleontology internship, but you also completed a second paleontology internship with USU Prehistoric Museum Paleontologist, Dr. Josh Lively. Can you tell me a little bit about that internship?
Moriera: Josh made an internship about the abundance of shark teeth in the ant hills within the Mancos Shale. My task was sorting through the debris from the ant hills under a microscope and going through a detailed book looking for different details and identifying them as best as possible by genus or species. I kept this data in a PowerPoint to be able to understand the abundance of sharks, fish, and rays, and then put them in their own categories.
We wanted to understand what swam in these oceans all the way back then. I was doing that for a couple months and we identified around 700 teeth from sharks, fish, and rays individually.
Science Moab: Your hard work on this internship impressed Dr. Lively so much that you earned the distinction of being listed as lead author on a research poster that you presented at a professional conference, the Geological Society of America, Rocky Mountain Section meeting this past May. As a high school student, how did that feel?
Moriera: When I was in that conference, I felt welcomed. I felt I was meant to be there. I was somebody; people were coming up to me and asking me about my poster and so intrigued, and they were taking pictures of the poster and talking to me. Overall, it just made me feel like a very special person at that moment.
That conference really changed my life for the better as well, and especially in how I am going on to do better things. At that conference, I met Jason Kaiser and Grant Shimmer, two heads of the geoscience department for my college, SUU—Southern Utah University—and they respected what I was doing.
Jason talked to my teacher, Alyssa Sherman, who helped me get there and is one of my biggest supporters to this day. She talked to him and explained how dedicated I was to paleontology. He loved that I was so passionate in who I was and what was going on in my own life, and he gave me (on the spot) the Department Scholarship, which covered my tuition and fees. With that, I wasn’t worried about college anymore. Going to GSA really changed my life and my perspective on everything, and it’s one of the memories that I will always have and always be thankful for.
Science Moab: How did participating in these job shadows and internships through School to Science change your perspective on science and scientists?
Moriera: So much. When I was younger, I always thought scientists were people in lab coats and there were a certain race and a certain gender and you couldn’t be one.
And then growing up and actually becoming somewhat of a scientist—and actually meeting people that are scientists and do it every day—that’s not even the fact at all. It’s just so baffling to me to think about how I thought about it and now how, actually, how it actually is. I never thought I would be in a position right now to be able to talk to you guys on a podcast about paleontology and geology.
I also like how selfless so many scientists are, especially when they are getting funded by the government to do science and stuff like that. They’re still doing that for the love of the science, the love of informing the public, informing kids, informing everybody that wants to listen and learn and that wants to actually sit down and take it in.
And they’re doing it for the love of the game. They’re doing it for the love of the passion built up over the years of doing all this. I think that’s the most selfless thing I’ve ever seen.
Read more about Chris’s journey: Local youth Chris Moreira presents original research at conference after Science Moab internships
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