Articles from:August 2022

• Brock’s Welcome Week aims to set students up for success

  Tuesday, August 30, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 30 August 2022 – R0093

  When thousands of students begin their studies at Brock next week, they’ll be welcomed by a packed lineup of activities meant to start their university experience off on the right foot.

  Brock’s Welcome Week kicks off Saturday, Sept. 3 and Sunday, Sept. 4 with the largest Move-in Weekend in the University’s history. More than 2,600 students will move into Brock residences, including the University’s newest facility, Residence 8, which opened its doors in January.

  The festivities will then continue throughout the week with a variety of safe, inclusive and alcohol-free events and activities meant to encourage students to meet friends, have fun and learn about all the services and programs Brock has to offer.

  Developed by a cross-campus committee of students, staff and faculty, Welcome Week programming provides an introduction to campus for new students, while also helping returning students who spent part of the past two years learning online to familiarize themselves with the on-campus experience, said Amber Scholtens, Brock’s Interim Director of Student Life and Success.

  “We know that many students coming to campus this September are eager for that in-person university experience,” she said. “Welcome Week events have been planned with this in mind and will focus on providing opportunities for students to make new friends, socialize, engage in co-curricular programming and build strong support networks with each other as well as with services on campus. All of these components are central to the university experience and important to students’ success and well-being.”

  Among the week’s events is the New Student Welcome and Academic Orientation held Tuesday, Sept. 6, which invites all new students to hear from current faculty and upper-year students as well as Brock Interim President Lynn Wells and Brock University Students’ Union (BUSU) President Faten Darbaj. There will also be a Returning Student Welcome, where upper-year students will hear from Wells, Darbaj and a panel of their peers.

  Also included during Welcome Week is BadgerFest, a weeklong festival hosted by BUSU that features events, fairs and volunteer opportunities to further orient Brock students in their new surroundings.

  “Our BadgerFest events have been planned specifically for the students of Brock as an opportunity to meet new friends, have fun and get to know campus,” Darbaj said. “They cater to a range of interests, from a community fair to paint party, bingo to live DJs at Isaac’s and more.”

  Throughout the week, there will be tailored events for students living in residence and those who live off campus, as well as Faculty- and interest-specific offerings.

  The final event of the week will see students head out into the community on Saturday, Sept. 10 to give back through volunteer and fundraising initiatives for Brock Cares Day of Service. For the 14th year, Brock students will take part in the University’s largest volunteer day, working with a variety of organizations across Niagara and contributing to the community they now call home.

  “Through Brock Cares, students begin the Fall Term by having a positive local impact and connecting with others who share a similar passion for giving back to the community,” said Scholtens. “Building those relationships early encourages students to continue working with local organizations throughout their time at the University and beyond, helping to nurture the next generation of passionate and engaged citizens.”

  A full list of Welcome Week activities, many of which require registration through the Event Pass website, can be found on Brock’s Welcome Week ExperienceBU page.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

   * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University [email protected] or 905-941-6209 

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  Categories: Media releases

• Rocks on Mars providing insight into planet’s history, says Brock scientist

  Thursday, August 25, 2022 | By Brock University

  MEDIA RELEASE: 24 August 2022 – R0092

  Mariek Schmidt is among a team of scientists from around the world examining rocks on Mars in hopes of learning more about the Red Planet’s history.

  A Participating Scientist in NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover mission, the Brock University Earth Sciences Professor played a key role in a research study released Thursday, Aug. 25 that outlined one of the first investigations of its kind conducted after the rover landed at Jezero Crater in February 2021. Also assisting on the study, which was led by Yang Liu at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab, was Brock post-doctoral fellow Tanya Kizovski.

  As part of the Mars mission, Schmidt worked with fellow scientists to help guide use of the rover’s instruments for research and data collection. Her focus was on the Planetary Instrument for X-Ray Lithochemistry (PIXL), an X-ray fluorescence spectrometer used to determine the fine-scale elemental composition of Martian surface materials.

  “One of the big unknowns when we landed in Jezero Crater was the origin of a particular rock unit,” says Schmidt, describing a huge mass of rock detectable from orbit that covers about 70,000 square kilometres on the planet’s surface. “It wasn’t until PIXL was able to analyze it that we were able to determine its origin.”

  The rock contains a significant amount of olivine — a mineral rich in iron and magnesium — as well as carbonate, a carbon-bearing compound that “may have some biosignature potential,” Schmidt says.

  Using the PIXL, researchers determined the olivine was likely formed deep underground from slowly cooling magma — or molten rock — before being exposed over time by erosion. They were also able to see how the various minerals within the igneous rock related to one another.

  The olivine minerals, for example, were well-formed crystals that hadn’t been eroded by wind or water, Schmidt says. Because olivine is dense, the crystals settled downward, collecting at the floor of a magma chamber or lava flow. A second mineral arrived at a later time that was also high temperature and filled the spaces around the olivine.

  Schmidt called the discovery “eye-opening.”

  “That’s a view we’ve never had before on Mars to be able to do those kinds of tests,” she says. “We were able to show that, at least in this particular place, the widespread unit is an igneous rock.”

  The rock type, she adds, is similar to that of a Martian meteorite found on Earth called a chassignite.

  “We’re able to take a lot of pictures from orbit of Mars but ground truthing (validating data on the ground) is really critical for being able to understand the planet’s geology, and this demonstrates that,” Schmidt says. “We’re not finding a rock where life once existed, but we think this is an important rock unit for understanding the history of Mars.”

  Samples from the rock unit examined in the study were collected on Mars, with the goal of seeing them return to Earth by an estimated 2034.

  “It’s amazing to be a part of this discovery — to see rocks and interpret rocks that have never been seen previously,” Schmidt says. “Fundamentally as a scientist, it’s gratifying to be able to see a rock that no one else has seen before and to say, ‘I know exactly what that is.’”

  The research team’s study, “An olivine cumulate outcrop on the floor of Jezero crater, Mars,” was one of a series of research papers released Thursday in relation to the Perseverance mission.

  For more information or for assistance arranging interviews:

  * Doug Hunt, Communications and Media Relations Specialist, Brock University [email protected] or 905-941-6209

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  Categories: Media releases