Scientist For a Day: Geologist

Ages: 9-12 years

The Scientist for a Day program is a full-day social and educational workshop for young minds, designed to show kids what it’s like to work in different areas of science such as geology!

Enjoy hands-on experiments to learn the science of how rocks are made, come behind-the-scenes to tour the Australian Museum Research Institute, plus explore the Minerals Exhibition. See where the real science happens in the AM's collections lab and have all your questions answered by experts in the field Ross Pogson, Collection Manager, Mineralogy & Petrology, and Dayna McGeeney, Technical Officer.

Spark your curiosity through the world of rocks and minerals!

Ross Pogson is the Scientific Officer, Collection Manager for Mineralogy & Petrology and Group Manager, Geosciences & Archaeology at the Australian Museum and has been with the Australian Museum since 1979.

Running the Museum’s X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analytical facility, Ross’ principle duties involve the management of a rock, mineral, meteorite and tektite collection of over 80,000 items, and associated public program, loan and educational activities.

Dayna McGeeney is Technical Officer, Mineralogy & Petrology at the Australian Museum. From a very early age, Dayna picked up rocks and marvelled in their shapes and colours. Collecting minerals and rocks continued and gave rise to questions as to how they were formed and why they were found at this point on the planet. This strong interest of knowledge lead to studying geology, remote sensing, geochemistry and gemmology.

Dayna has a strong interest in bringing the adventure and knowledge of geoscience to the public by engaging people on the gallery floor and assisting in specimen identifications.