Friday, January 29, 2010

Friday Field Foto: A Field

A geology professor I much respected was famous for saying "I wouldn't just take you ANYwhere!", no matter how plain and uninteresting the site looked. Invariably, the story told in the drab rocks was far more interesting than the original view suggested, a phenomenon familiar to many of my geologist friends. So today, for all the places I take you on Geotripper, here is a plain and uninteresting...field.

It's not just any field, though. In three years, if the stars align correctly, this will be the Modesto Junior College Community Science Center, and it will be a wonderful facility for advancing the sciences in our educationally-challenged Central Valley of California. Besides housing the Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Earth Sciences departments, it will also include an observatory, a planetarium, and the Great Valley Natural History Museum.

The project is being funded by our own community through a bond issue that was passed several years ago, and much of the credit for the design and impetus for the project belongs to some very talented and tenacious people in our division. It's going to be a great facility! Construction bids are coming in at the end of the next month, and construction should begin soon after. Expect to see some updates as the building grows.

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