Reading the Story that the Sediments are Telling

The Essential Steps for Taking the Mystery Out of the Subsurface Online Course is like a webinar on steroids.   The experience combines lectures with quiz and question challenges along with hands-on practice for identifying sedimentary structure, recognizing weathering zones and soil texturing in a way that Cirque du Soliel or KISS might design it.

Thank you to those who enrolled into the Offline Tutorial Workshop!  Tim Kemmis and I had a blast listening and learning from you....and despite our pride in helping you through this educational experience, we are humbled to help you unravel sedimentary mysteries in the subsurface.

Special Thank You to Betsy Schamberger, President of Moonstone Environmental for your fun participation during the Workshop and sending us photos of Bryan and Derrick (and yourself) practicing their soil texturing skills!  Your mastery of classifying and texturing abounds!

Betsy and Derrick at Moonstone Environmental

Practice makes perfect: classification is just one of several key steps

Calibrated soil samples are the key to classification mastery.

This is how Betsy described the hands-on workshop with the MidwestGeo Super Soil Kit:

"Working with the soil kit was by far the most useful training we have had in years. This is such a fundamental skill, but most of us haven't actually studied soil texture since college. It was great to get our hands on known standards and refresh our memories on proper soil characterization methods.  Now I know our soil logs will be accurate and reproducible."

If you're in the field and have questions about the sedimentary sequence you see and feel, our phone line is open and we'd be glad to just hear from you.   To those peeps who already call us, thank you for the honor of thinking of us.   Phone: 763.607.0092  or  Email at: service@midwestgeo.com

A Few Ways that On-Site Coordinators Can Enrich a Webinar Experience

We look for ways to improve everyone's webinar experience.  Thanks to participants who have shared their ideas and strategies to enrich a live or on-demand webinar experience and add value along the way.  

Here are some ways that On-Site Coordinators can enrich a webinar experience:

1.       Designate a space that is conducive for uninterrupted events. 

2.       Invite special guests to the event.  Inviting clients and stakeholders to share a webinar at your office through mutual interests.

3.       Create a list of questions before the event.  Prepare questions to ensure your educational objectives are achieved.

4.       Determine your CEU requirements. Understand your licensure CEU requirements and state to state differences.

5.       Be a good on-site host.  Create an environment conducive to learning with beverages, comfortable chairs, appropriate lighting, and room temperature.  Be proactive to eliminate distractions such as individual laptops in your group setting.

6.       Engage the instructor.  Join the Question and Answer Session and then take 10 minutes more to discuss at your site.

7.         Offer feedback.  Assess the quality of the webinar.  Recognize how promotional material may cause a conflict of interest in the educational message. 

8.         Thank your guests and distribute post-webinar material.  Forward post-webinar emails with CEU options to your attendees and invite their feedback too.

You are invited to share how you enrich webinars and add value to the experience too.

Midwest GeoSciences Group offers a Subscription Service for On-Demand Webinars along with live events.   Subscriptions are perfect for training your staff for soil logging, rock core logging, environmental sampling, wellinstallation, slug testing, etc.

CEUs are available from Northern Illinois University.

Association of Engineering Geologists 2015 Annual Meeting in Pittsburgh

Engineering geology is among my favorite geoscience subjects.  The applied nature of designing structures based on the subsurface require a true mastery of multidimensional disciplines.  Engineering geologists truly inspire me because of the process where lessons are learned from project to project based on the critical nature of constant improvement for engineering success.

The annual meeting in Pittsburgh this week is chock full of great examples of how engineering geologists prioritize protection of human life ranging from mechanical factors of safety to simple love for people.  For example, today a keynote speaker shared a research project about identifying a high probability for a potential landslide will likely save many lives. 

Midwest GeoSciences Group is honored to contribute to the 2015 AEG Annual Meeting through our exhibitor booth, technical presentations and teaching a short course about rock core logging.  It's our priveledge to contribute to such a thoughtful and meaningful organization.


Dan Kelleher and Matt Benson, both Northern Illinois University Dept of Geology Alumni.

In response to those who requested access to bundles of On-Demand Webinars, you can now subscribe to webinars according to your specific needs.  

We are honored to serve you and help you become a technical master of hydrogeology, environmental science and engineering.

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