Field Work & Lab Work
As I have progressed in my educational career as a scientist, I’ve gotten to take a wide variety of classes that involve both field work and lab work. I’ve had many hands-on experiences with topics like chemistry, geology, and environmental science. Because of all these experiences, I feel as though I am a better scientist because of it.
Chemistry lab experiences have taught me to use critical thinking and extreme quantitative reasoning skills. It has pushed me further in problem solving and collaborating than most of my other classes, and has taught me that lots of scientific topics– although different– can be related to each other.
I have the most experiences in geology labs, since geology is a special interest of mine. Because of field work in classes, I’ve had the opportunity to travel all around the Fredericksburg, Virginia area and use observation skills and data collection and data analysis skills. For example, a project I had was to evaluate marsh development in Colonial Beach, VA. I got to take part in obtaining a marsh core, and performing multiple methods of analysis like magnetic susceptibility and loss on ignition in the lab. The whole process of that piece of field and lab work strengthened my skills in following scientific procedures, data collection, observation, critical thinking, and data analysis.
In environmental science, I’ve had the opportunity to do field work abroad as well. In the spring of 2025, I got scuba certified with PADI to do conservation work in Bonaire, Caribbean Netherlands. I took classes learning about reef ecosystems and their importance, then about reef conservation. By the end of the field trip, I had learned how to maintain coral gardens and out plant new corals to rebuild damaged reefs. This experience furthermore strengthened my communication, problem solving, and equipment handling skills.
Photos from Bonaire by Dr. Pamela Grothe and Ben Schwartz
Sedimentation and Stratigraphy lab graphic. November 2025.
Scientific Oral Communication
Throughout my educational career, I’ve had to give many presentations about various topics. In the scientific world, being able to communicate is a very useful skill. Oral communication helps scientists understand new and old research, structure ideas, and make complex topics digestible to audiences and colleagues. I have had the opportunity to give presentations about geologic features, developing technologies, and more.
In my energy resources and technology class, my team practiced both oral communication, teamwork, collaboration, and time management skills. As the presentation lead of this project, I was able to showcase my oral communication abilities, as I started and finished this presentation. Also in my energy resources and technology class, I gave a presentation about buoyant energy storage technology (BEST), to my class. During this presentation, I was able to communicate a new idea to my class ina way that they could easily digest, but remained professional and scientific.
Energy proposal presentation by Sarah Burkinshaw, Killian Howard, and Samantha Shuffleton. December 2025.
Sustainable energy storage presentation by Sarah Burkinshaw. October 2025.
UMW Performing Arts Company
The activities I take part in on campus have helped me to improve my collaboration and teamwork skills. I am very involved on campus, including the dance company, club swim team, and pep band. In all of these activities, group collaboration is very important. In the Performing Arts Company, my role as a choreographer and dancer plays a huge role in using my teamwork skills. As a dancer, it is my job to work effectively with a group of my peers to bring an imaginary vision to life, and that requires communication. As a choreographer, collaboration with my peers is necessary to make sure that everyone is comfortable and confident with what they are doing according to my instruction. The artifact correlating to this competency are videos of the dances I choreographed, as in one of them I both came up with the choreography and also danced in the piece. This skill is useful to employers because collaboration is a necessary skill in the scientific world. Everyone has good ideas, and more work gets done when people are able to collaborate with each other in a positive way. It is also important to have good teamwork skills so that no one feels put down/ less than, because people work better in a more engaging environment!
Lyrical dance from Fall 2023. Performed by the UMW Performing Arts Company.
Photos by @marynnewmanphoto on Instagram.
Photos by @kwhphotos on Instagram.