Meet the team from the Chenango Forks High School

Chenango Forks High School is a small-town school near central New York. Our team is composed of three seniors, three juniors, and one freshman. We have two returning team members from last year whose research poster on craters in Mare Orientale was chosen to be on display at the lunar science forum last year. As the first champion school in 2010, we are out for another win this year! Our research in 2010 was on relative dating of Mare based on crater density. Our goals for this competition this year are to gain a better understanding of lunar geology and explore the world of NASA research.

Meet the Chenago Forks High School Mentor, Dr. Amanda Nahm

I was interested in planetary science pretty much as long as I can remember. I became interested in geology after watching a show about underwater volcanoes. I had also been interested in astronomy, which I think I got from my dad. When I went to a science camp at Purdue University for girls after middle school, I learned that there was a way to combine my interests in to one: planetary geology. In 1997, when Pathfinder landed on Mars and they showed the first images on the news, I was enthralled. As far as I knew, that was the first time we had ever seen the surface of another planet. That was it; I was hooked.

I went to school at the University of Colorado, Boulder and made my own planetary geology degree. I got my bachelor’s in Geology and a minor in Astronomy. I was lucky enough to get to know Dr. Bob Pappalardo (now at JPL, and with whom I now also work) and also to do a NASA internship at Brown University with Dr. Jim Head. I went to the University of Nevada, Reno for my Ph.D. to work with Dr. Rich Schultz (now at ConocoPhilips) on the geologic history of Mars using faults and other tectonic structures. I then spent a year and a half at the Lunar and Planetary Institute where I studied the Moon, specifically faults and the large impact basin Orientale. I am now at the University of Texas at El Paso where I get to continue my lunar work along with studying the evolution of the icy shells of Europa and Enceladus and where I also get a chance to work with students, which is my favorite part of the job!