OUTREACH & DEI                                             

The Bergmann Lab is committed to a variety of community outreach projects, focusing on using hands-on classroom learning experiences, field excursions, and interactive activities to teach skills important in the natural sciences and to spark interest in the geosciences for a diverse group of kids and young adults.

  TEACHING & MENTORING             

The Bergmann Lab strives to create deep learning experiences through field trips to Precambrian and Lower Paleozoic sedimentary successions. We teach traditional field skills while also exploring how new technologies can help us better understand ancient environments.

Bergmann lab members join 'Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences' (URGE) pod

  January 2021
Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences logo

Kristin is co-leading an Unlearning Racism in the Geosciences (URGE) “pod” during Spring 2021. URGE seeks to “deepen the community’s knowledge of the effects of racism on the participation and retention of Black, Brown, and Indigenous people in Geoscience” as well as “develop anti-racist policies and strategies… within a dynamic community network and on a national stage.”

Article: "Actionable recommendations for making SEPM a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society for all sedimentary geologists"

  September 2020

In conjunction with several collaborators across the discipline, Kristin co-authored a piece in the SEPM publication “The Sedimentary Record” calling for making SEPM a diverse, inclusive, and equitable society for all. This article argues for swift, decisive action, and includes actionable recommendations to affect change.

Advocating for improving SEPM's Ethics and Policy guidelines

  Fall 2020

Kristin has been an active advocate for improving SEPM’s Ethics and Policy Guidelines.

Representing faculty on the MIT EAPS 'DEI Committee' and 'Women in Course 12' group

As a faculty representative of the MIT EAPS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (DEIC) and Women in Course 12 (WiXII), Kristin Bergmann to promote equity of experiences, inclusion of each and every member of the MIT community, and promote a diversity of approaches and questions.

Dana Hall school goes to Nahant, MA

  May 28th, 2019

Members of the Bergmann Lab and graduate students from MIT EAPS took 60 middle school students from Dana Hall school to rock outcrops in Nahant, MA. Students braved the rain to learn what's in a geologist's backpack, how to use hand lenses, what fossils from the Cambrian look like, and the geologic history of Massachusetts. Photo credit: Lyssa Freese

Science by the Pint

  July 19th, 2018

The Bergmann Lab spent an evening talking science, looking at ancient fossils, and drinking local craft beer with community members at Aeronaut Brewing as part of their "Science by the Pint" series. Photo credit: Kristin Bergmann

8th Grade Rocks!

  May 8th, 2018

The Bergmann Lab spent the day on the coast in Nahant, MA, teaching scientific observation skills, rock identification, and how to pack for a field excursion with middle school students and educators from the Dana Hall School. Photo credit: Kristin Bergmann

Prospect Hill Academy Visit

  May 4th, 2018

Students from Prospect Hill Academy visited the Bergmann Lab to see geoscientists in action. Bergmann Lab members showed students fossils under the microscope, how weathering and erosion move sediment, and what geologists bring along on field excursions.

MIT Museum's Girls Day

  March 10th, 2018

Kristin Bergmann joined several other scientists from MIT and other local universities to encourage girls and women to pursue science at the 6th annual MIT Museum's Girls Day. "Scientists can be explorers," Bergmann said to the 800 girls and young women in the audience. "Be creative and curious, even if it means getting some B's and C's along the way." Photo credit: Lauren Hinkel

Carlson Lecture with Susan Solomon

  October 26th, 2017
 

The Bergmann Lab showed drone photography and rock samples from recent research in Svalbard to community members at the New England Aquarium before Susan Solomon's lecture, "A Brief History of Environmental Successes." Photo credit: Kristin Bergmann

8th Rock Outcrop

  June 2nd, 2017

In June of 2017, the Bergmann Lab took a group of students from the Dana Hall School to an oceanside rock outcrop near Nahant, MA. Dana Hall students learned observation and note-taking skills, identified rocks and minerals, and worked together in teams to uncover clues about the geologic past. Photo credit: Lesley Doll at Dana Hall School

Dana Hall School

  June 2nd, 2017

The Bergmann Lab visited the students Dana Hall School for a day of interactive geoscience. Bergmann Lab member Marjorie Cantine is shown involving Dana Hall students in tabletop demonstrations of erosion and sedimentation. Photo Credit: Adam Richins

Environmental Solutions Initiative's Earth Day

  April 22nd, 2017

The Bergmann Lab took to the streets of Cambridge to participate in the annual Earth Day Science Fair put on by the Envrironment Solutions Initiative. Lab members engaged local youngsters in interactive activities demonstrating erosion, sedimentation, and the water cycle, as well as showing sedimentary rock samples. Photo credit: Maya Stokes

Prospect Hill Academy visit

  May 5th, 2017

A group of students from Prospect Hill Academy visited the Bergmann Lab to learn about the tools that geoscientists use to uncover clues about Earth's history. Bergmann Lab members also involved the students in interactive models of the natural environment. Photo credit: Marjorie Cantine

URG2 — Undergraduate Research in the Geosciences for Under-represented Groups

   Summer 2022
Kristin Bergmann in the field

The Bergmann Lab joins six other geoscience labs in the URG2 program sponsored by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. URG2 offers paid summer research opportunities to undergraduates curious about geoscience. The program encourages those with no prior experience in the field to apply -- see the URG2 website for more information and application instructions.

Bergmann lab members launch online Earth history course on edX

  February 2021
Kristin uses MIT's 'lightboard' to teach students about seawater chemistry

The Bergmann Lab is excited to announce the beginning of the EdX MOOC course titled “Nature’s Sandbox: The History of Ancient Environments, Climate, and Life”. This interactive course combines conventional whiteboard teaching with virtual field trips and expert discussions. This course has attracted a diverse group of 875 learners from ages 14-89 who are excited about Earth science. Photo credit: Adam Jost

Agouron geobiology short course

  Summer 2018 & 2019
Students work on printouts of photomicrographs

As an instructor for the Agouron Institute geobiology short course in 2018 and 2019, Kristin led a session on petrography. Photo credit: Kristin Bergmann

MIT EAPS graduate student first year course

  Fall 2018 & 2020

In 2018 and 2020, Kristin created and co-led the MIT EAPS first-year graduate student course. This course seeks to build cohesion among first-year graduate students, and, importantly, shed light on the “hidden curriculum” of academia. Unspoken rules, procedures, and norms tend to exclude and disadvantage underrepresented students in the Earth sciences: this course attempts to demystify STEM.

Kristin honored with MIT's 'Committed to Caring' Award

  Fall 2019
The Bergmann Lab!

Kristin was honored with MIT’s Committed to Caring Award for professors who “go above and beyond to make an impact in the lives of graduate students.” Student nominators shared that Kristin’s efforts have “both improved the department’s culture and empowered students to work to change department culture” and given students “the space to succeed on their own.” Photo credit: Gretchen Ertl

Squantum Tillite Field Trip

  April 21st, 2019

Kristin Bergmann led a field trip to the coast south of Boston to show the Neoproterozoic Squantum Tillite to students in her course "Nature's Sandbox: The History of Ancient Environments, Climate, and Life. Students learned how to sketch an outcrop, how use a hand lens and Jacob staff, and how to identify common rock types. Photo credit: Noah Anderson

Bermuda

  March 25th—April 1st, 2018

For Prof. Kristin Bergmann's annual spring break field trip for her Sedimentary Environments course, students explored the sedimentology of coastal environments in Bermuda. Photo credit: Julia Wilcots

Newfoundland

  August 25th—31st, 2017

At the end of August 2017, Kristin Bergmann led an interdisciplinary group of EAPS students on a week-long field trip to Newfoundland, Canada. To take advantage of the broad range of expertise among the crew, students researched an aspect of Newfoundland geology to become an "expert" on, and then were able to deliver lectures to their classmates while on the relevant outcrop. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann

At the end of August 2017, Kristin Bergmann led an interdisciplinary group of EAPS students on a week-long field trip to Newfoundland, Canada. To take advantage of the broad range of expertise among the crew, students researched an aspect of Newfoundland geology to become an "expert" on, and then were able to deliver lectures to their classmates while on the relevant outcrop. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann.

At the end of August 2017, Kristin Bergmann led an interdisciplinary group of EAPS students on a week-long field trip to Newfoundland, Canada. To take advantage of the broad range of expertise among the crew, students researched an aspect of Newfoundland geology to become an "expert" on, and then were able to deliver lectures to their classmates while on the relevant outcrop. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann.

At the end of August 2017, Kristin Bergmann led an interdisciplinary group of EAPS students on a week-long field trip to Newfoundland, Canada. To take advantage of the broad range of expertise among the crew, students researched an aspect of Newfoundland geology to become an "expert" on, and then were able to deliver lectures to their classmates while on the relevant outcrop. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann.


Drones over the Desert

  March 25th—31st, 2017

Over Spring Break of 2017, Kristin Bergmann led her Sedimentary Environments course to Death Valley, CA for a week-long field trip to explore the Cambrian Carrara Formation, creatively combining the use of drones and traditional field methods to assess lateral variations in stratigraphy. Highlights included witnessing the record of transition from a microbialite- to skeletal-dominated world, learning how to use iPads in the field, and lovely desert flowers. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann

Van Horn, Texas

  March 24th—30th, 2016

As part of her Sedimentology in the Field course, Prof. Kristin Bergmann took her students on a spring break trip to Van Horn, TX to develop field skills while studying the Cambrian and Precambrian succession of the area. Each day was capped off with campfire jam sessions, featuring a smorgasbord of instruments played by Caltech and MIT students. Photo Credit: Kristin Bergmann