GEM-SET

Kristine M. Thompson
Geologist
Mammoth Site of Hot Springs
Hot Springs, SD

I am an Educator and Geologist at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs, South Dakota. I joined the Mammoth Site in December 2001. Growing up, I was fortunate to live an hour away from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago. My parents took me there numerous times and the fossil exhibit always captivated me! My initial college studies and job thereafter was in banking! It seemed a safe thing to do. I had a banking/finance job in Chicago and began to volunteer on the weekends at the Field Museum, revitalizing those paleontology interests! Encouraged by the wonderful staff at the Field Museum, I decided to go back to school and pursue a degree in Geology. Thanks to a mentoring program sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, I received funding to pursue a degree in Geology and an internship with a female geologist. My science education is a BS in Geology with an emphasis in Evolutionary Biology from Illinois State University. I am completing a graduate degree and I am in the final writing phase of a Masters of Science from at Northern Arizona University studying paleontology. My thesis is on paleontology and sedimentology in the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone on the southern Colorado Plateau. I have conducted research in geology and paleontology and have published several peer-reviewed publications and abstracts.

For three years I was the lead teaching assistant in the Environmental Science Department at Northern Arizona University, teaching and developing curricula. I produced a laboratory manual for senior level Environmental Science class and devised field trip destinations and created corresponding guidebooks. It was an enjoyable duty and a lot of work. I have worked in several National Park Service units as a geological and paleontological researcher and interpreter for a number of seasons. I was a Discovery Programs Educator at the Museum of Northern Arizona where the emphasis was on secondary education self-paced, discovery-based learning in field and classroom. The natural expression of science for me is to conduct and to teach science!
I am eagerly working on several projects at the Mammoth Site. A Mammoth Site Internship was implemented last year and the response from college students across the nation has been outstanding. I am the project advisor on the internship program and looks forward to another great experience for interns and staff. I am pretty busy developing and implementing programs and field trips for secondary education, and assisting with revisions and preparation for an active schedule of primary and secondary educational programs. I developed and put into practice the 2002 summer a geology merit badge program for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America that were well received.

I am a member of Society for Vertebrate Paleontologists, Geological Society of America, Society for Sedimentary Geology, and American Association for Advancement of Science. I say, what better place for a geologist to be than studying and teaching paleontology and geology in one of the World's finest paleontological sites!"