My first field experience

My name is Victory Iyakoregha, and I am current a summer student at CEOS. On May 9th, 2019, I went out to the field to assist M.Sc. student Katelyn Rogers in collecting samples and checking on her sites at WaterHen. I was excited to have an opportunity to experience fieldwork on a first-hand base. I was able to see how the data I work on is collected and recorded. Most of the time out in the field was spent collecting samples from different sites and collecting data about those samples. Miss Katelyn did most of the work while I helped out where I could. The most important part for me was the opportunity to ask questions about the entire process involved with data collection.

My day-to-day job at CEOS involves writing scripts to help clean data. I am also currently looking at ways to make data collection and recording easier for the researchers at CEOS. 99% of the tasks mentioned above are done from behind a computer screen, going out to the field was a welcome deviation from my daily work. Going out to the field has given me a better understanding of what happens during data collection, and how I could possibly help improve on the methods currently in use.