Rocky the Raccoon Children’s Book: Interview with Katie Maloney and Alexander Young

In this episode, I sit down with author Katie Maloney and illustrator Alex Young to talk about their brand-new children’s book Rocky the Raccoon Explores the Niagara Escarpment, which is directly aligned with the Grade 4 Ontario science curriculum. We dive into the art of science communication—how to take complex ideas and transform them into fun, accessible stories that spark curiosity. Katie and Alex share what it was like to bring Rocky to life, from the creative process of writing and illustrating to the challenges of making geology engaging for kids. We also discuss why it’s vital for scientists to share their work with the public, and how teachers can use Rocky the Raccoon as a classroom resource.

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Introduction

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Beneath Your Feet, a geoscience podcast. I’m Veronica Klassen, science communicator, geology enthusiast and your host. Here at the APGO Education Foundation, our mission is to spark curiosity and passion for the geology of Ontario. Whether you’re a geology nerd, science enthusiast, or nature lover, this podcast is for you. Join us as we geek out over fascinating geology, uncover the hidden stories
and secrets of our extraordinary planet and explore the captivating world beneath your feet.

Veronica Klassen

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Beneath Your Feet. Today I’m going to be talking to Katie Maloney and Alex Young, who’ve been writing and illustrating a children’s book about the geology of the Niagara Escarpment. Rocky The Raccoon, which is out now, is a story about a raccoon exploring the Niagara Escarpment, learning about geology and the environment. The goal of the book is to educate, inspire kids to get outside and explore the natural environment.

So thank you guys so much for joining me. Why don’t you start by telling me a bit about yourselves? Who are you and what do you do?

Katie Maloney

So I’m Katie Maloney. I am a paleontologist and I’m currently a Rebanks fellow at the Royal Ontario Museum, so studying some of the fossils in their collection. I did my Ph.D. and Master’s at University of Toronto and my undergrad at McMaster, and then I did a short post-doc at McMaster, kind of working on this project and another postdoc at McGill University, working up in the Arctic on some older fossils that are about a billion years old. And I’ll be starting at Michigan State this August.

Alexander Young

And my name is Alex Young. I’m a biomedical communicator and freelance medical illustrator, which doesn’t necessarily mean a ton, we’ll get into what those mean probably later on in the podcast. But broadly, I would consider myself a scientific communicator that focuses on visuals. And so Katie asked if I could help illustrate this book, bring Rocky to life. And given the fact that I can draw most of the time, and also I am able to relatively accurately convey that science because of my background, that’s why I got brought onto the project. And why I can do the things accurately? Well, I did my Master’s at UofT in medical illustration and science communication, and prior to that I did my undergrad at Mac in Integrated Science, which is actually where I met Katie and Carolyn, the other co-author on the book. So, yeah.

Veronica

Perfect. Thanks so much, guys. So I am so excited to hear about this book that you are working on. So how did this project come about? Where did the idea originally start?

Katie

So the idea for the book originally started when I was a Mitacs postdoctoral fellow at McMaster University, and so we had a project working on geoscience communication, trying to sort out how we could have people be more engaged with the Niagara Escarpment, since it affects everyone’s everyday lives throughout the Hamilton Niagara area. And so the project originally started with several undergraduate students who were supposed to work in a lab during COVID. And then when the COVID pandemic hit, they were not allowed in the lab space at McMaster University. So instead what they did is they rode their bikes along the Niagara Escarpment and picked out different areas of interest.

So the project was in motion long before I joined. But when I joined in 2022, it was a lot of putting the data that these students had gathered over several years together and making it accessible for the public. And then Deana, who works for the APGO Education Foundation, puts all this fantastic information and data into these story maps that people can access online and use to have a virtual guide to these trails.

Veronica

Okay, awesome. And how did you get connected to this Alex?

Alex

So I got brought in as an illustrator once they got sort of some funding and the project evolved into, you know, how can we make this a more engaging experience to introduce the topics and the subject matter to the school system as well. And sort of with a focus on, you know, local schools that are adjacent to the Niagara Escarpment, but beyond that, as well what would be useful for Ontario students given the curriculum and what they’re taught about earth sciences at the elementary school level. And once they realized that they wanted to do an illustrated book that could connect to elementary school students, then Katie and Carolyn co-author got in touch.

They knew that I had been in ISci with both of them, Carolyn was our prof, and then I had sort of moved into this capacity as a medical illustrator and they thought that it would be a good fit for the book. And then it became a very fun mash up of like personal, because obviously I have so much respect for Katie and Caroline and being able to work with them again is incredible, professional because I do like doing these sorts of things,
in particular. I have always enjoyed communicating science, it was a big focus when I was in ISci. Like, I think that science is most valuable when it’s communicated well. Very cool if you’re doing, you know, incredible, you know, physics research or biology research or any field. But if you’re not disseminating that well, it doesn’t have the impact that it should, particularly with kids, right> And young folks. And so this was an awesome extension of that. And yeah, it’s just a great mash up of, you know, personal, professional. And then we get into this incredible and fun experience of writing and illustrating a book.

Katie

Yeah. And we’re really grateful to The Paleontological Society who gave us the first grant. We applied for an education and outreach grant through The Paleontological Society, and they were able to give us some of the support we needed to first fund the illustrations. And that funding was matched by the APGO Education Foundation. And so that’s really what got the book off the ground, which is very much appreciated.

Veronica

Awesome so fun. So the APGO has this really cool product, the GeoHikes and the goal was really how do we get these GeoHikes into the school system? How do we get kids engaging with this content? Because it is fairly high level. So how do we yeah, how do we engage kids and how do we engage teachers as well? So that’s kind of, if I’m phrasing this correctly, that’s like the whole goal of this project?

Katie

Yes, definitely. I think teachers are very busy and they have a lot of constraints on their time. So the easier that we can make this material and content for them to access and use in their classrooms the better. And so we have the Illustrated children’s book, which is awesome, but we also have a teacher’s guide that will accompany it, that has links to different websites that teachers can use, and it also has a lot of printables in it. So you can go ahead and print out 30 copies of any of the activities and give them to your class and it’s ready to go without having to put the extra time and work in when they already have so many constraints on their time.

Alex

Yeah, and I think from that to, you know, you’re talking about how do we make sure that this is accessible and engaging. And I think that was a big thing that, you know, informed the whole concept of the book itself. It’s not just like a didactic textbook that is going to maybe explain some of these higher level processes and features in a dry way, shall we say? Especially for like we’re looking at like Grade four elementary school students. And so you want something that like, yes, has facts and accurate information and teaches them the content that is necessary, but is also like fun to engage with. And it’s very easy to do that with a narrative and a narrative structure and a cute raccoon and his fossil friends.

And so I think that was a big part of it as well, is how can we make this, I think, more representative of how exciting it can be to study some of these things in real life as well. One of the reasons I always loved earth science and in particular biology, like those were sort of my favourites, was because you got to get your hands dirty, you got to be out in the field, you got to see things. And it’s not to say you don’t get to do that in other disciplines of science, but reading about something and then being able to experience it, you know, in the field very different. And while we’re not necessarily getting quite there, hopefully the narrative experience and showing them what those things look like is also much more engaging than just a textbook.

Veronica

Yes, definitely. Yeah, there’s a very big difference in those things, reading a textbook and engaging in a story. And yes, like an important part of this as well as that it is free and open access to teachers too. So speaking of making it easily accessible for teachers and for students, that’s part of the way that you guys are doing that as well.

Yeah. So speaking of Rocky, can you tell me a little bit more about Rocky’s journey? Where does he go? What does he do?

Katie

Sure. So Rocky is a curious raccoon and he’s kind of wandering along the Niagara Escarpment and he’s mostly looking for a new spot to to have his home. He’s just looking for somewhere to live. But he goes about it in a little bit of a destructive way and starts breaking rocks. And as he does, he ends up meeting a fossil that comes to life and teaches him not only about the history of the Niagara Escarpment and some of his fossil friends along the way, but also rocks and minerals, which aligns with the Grade Four Ontario curriculum.

Alex

And as he’s doing this, the fossil friend is named Lily, Lily introduces him to different parts of the Niagara Escarpment, both in present day. So we sort of get to see what it looks like across its boundaries. But we also sort of break those boundaries and get to take a peek at what it might have looked like through time. We get into the geologic history of the Niagara Escarpment and how that’s changed and how what we see currently is very different from how it was, you know, several, several million years ago, but also how those past features informed what it looks like currently and the connection between that. And again, connecting back to the curriculum.

We also get some snapshots of other places because we do get into rock types. We break up some of that information. So Rocky may or may not get to, you know, beyond that, the beach in Iceland and see the Canadian shield at some point and visit a few other locales as well. No spoilers, so.

Veronica

Perfect. So what do you hope that kids are going to actually learn and take away from this? You mentioned the Grade Four Ontario Curriculum, what are the connections there?

Katie

So the Grade Four Ontario Curriculum covers rocks and minerals, but a lot of the Ontario curriculum now has themes of sustainability in it as well. And so a lot of what’s going on with the Niagara Escarpment is it really dictates the way our groundwater travels through Ontario and it affects a lot of people’s everyday lives without them noticing.

So when we think about Hamilton Ontario and we talk about the mountain above the Escarpment and then downtown below the Escarpment, there’s many transportation issues that end up happening because we have this large geographical feature that’s been here for hundreds of millions of years. And so not only does it affect our economy, our transportation, it affects our agriculture, it’s actually what allows us to grow grapes and more southern varieties of things like peaches and apples in Niagara, which normally you wouldn’t be able to grow. So I think really emphasizing that there’s all these treasures in terms of rocks and fossils in people’s backyards is a big goal, but also to start to think of the influence of some of these geologic features on everyone’s everyday lives.

Alex

Yeah, and building on that, too, I think because we have this focus on the local features that are around, and again, like we are sort of tailoring this towards like folks who live in the Niagara Escarpment, broadly applicable to the curriculum. But by encouraging folks to have a sort of sense of wonder about the natural world just outside their door as opposed to super far away and then how they can get involved with that through organizations like the ones that we’ve partnered with that have helped fund this book. But beyond that, too, like what other conservation groups and organizations can they maybe be part of so that they can see this on their own, even if they do live somewhere else, and how they can help preserve it for future generations and just learn more as well and get engaged.

Veronica

Hmm. Awesome. Yeah.

Katie

It’s also a great opportunity to introduce earth science a little bit earlier to students. So a lot of times you don’t cover earth science in any detail in high schools. And so by the time students get to university, most of the students that end up in earth science programs are actually pulled out from other programs because they don’t realize it’s an option. And I would be one of those cases. I started in Integrated Science with Alex, and I thought I would want to go to medical school since I like science and I like to help people, but then I realize that there are a lot of other opportunities, especially in things like earth science, where you can do those same things. So I think introducing these ideas of stewardship and looking after the environment a little bit earlier and how that can actually translate to a career would be super useful for Ontario students since there’s going to be a lot of jobs in environmental geoscience coming up. We’re going to need lots of people to try to understand how the rocks underneath our feet affect our everyday lives.

Veronica

Yes, definitely. I think it’s super important that kids get an introduction to geology and yeah, it’s definitely a bit of a gap there. And with that. So how is the educational content of the book influenced by your research or experiences as well?

Alex

Yeah, I think speaking for the illustrations, as a trained medical illustrator and that doesn’t necessarily mean like that, I had to go with the master’s program. There’s actually a bunch of medical illustrators who don’t necessarily do that, but the trained part is that you are working to maintain a level of scientific accuracy and like factual basis in what you’re doing. So you’re depicting whatever you’re visualizing as truthfully as possible. And that could be like anatomical features, if I was doing something that was focused on, you know, the muscles in the arm. But in this case, it’s making sure that we’re depicting all of the geologic features as accurately as possible, but also, again, at a level that’s accessible for elementary school students.

So for me, that was: What are the key features of these particular rocks or fossils that we need to show? What is like an accurate colour, that they need to be shown? A level of detail that’s appropriate so that it looks like it should? And we’ve had, you know, Katie, Carolyn and other researchers look at it and sort of that their work as well, which is always a big part of what we do, is like working with the subject matter experts to make sure it’s accurate, but that it’s accurate enough, but that it’s not too detailed, that, you know, kids readers are not going to engage with it and not find it again, as fun and engaging as you would typically get from a children’s book. So sort of taking best practices of how to illustrate well and accurately and applying that to the book itself so that all of that is captured as intended.

Veronica

And how about for you, Katie, How is the content influenced by your experience?

Katie

So most of my research as a paleontologist has focused on much older fossils, but the same kind of laws of ecosystems hold true even further back in Earth’s history. So when we’re thinking about like communities of organisms, the communities of organisms not only affect each other, but they affect their environment and their environment affects them. And so a lot of my research focuses on fossil seaweed. And so since seaweed are photosynthesizers, they play a huge role in changing early ocean habitats. So they create oxygen, they reorganize biogeochemical cycles, so things like nitrogen and phosphorus. So when we were writing this book, we were thinking a lot about not only Lily the crinoid, but who Lily the crinoid would have been hanging out with what type of environment she was living in. And so it’s important to add that like geological perspective when we’re looking at the fossils and think about what the rocks can tell us, because there’s usually a much larger story than just the individual fossils.

Veronica

Okay, awesome. Yeah, that’s so cool and so challenging to to do that. But I think you guys are doing it really well. Let’s let’s loop back and talk a little bit about the illustrations specifically. So I just want to ask you, Alex, like how was the process for you illustrating the book and what sort of factors do you have to take into account when you’re designing what a children’s book actually looks like?

Alex

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think the first place as like maybe unintuitive as it sounds, is to start with the script itself. And so Caroline and Katie had worked on that and then we sort of went through it and refined it and figured out how to break it up page by page. The script is like the backbone for everything that’s happening right? Before we even got into the visual style and what needs to be included on each page, we do need to know what is the information that we’re trying to convey? What is the key message from this particular page? And what is the learning objective that we’re trying to have? Because this is an educational book as well. So I think that was the first bit is really nailing down the script and getting a pretty good understanding on the overall like narrative flow and what we wanted to show.

From there, I actually started with sort of just like figuring out what we wanted the visual style to be, and because we knew that was going to be Rocky, it started with me drawing a bunch of different raccoons and sending them to Carolyn and Katie for review and being like, “which raccoon is your favourite?” And, you know, those were, I would say, a mix of like more illustrative in style to this like sort of semi accurate, but I would say like cartoonish style that we’ve gone with with book versus something that was like much more like vector art-y and like clean shapes that make up Rocky, but not necessarily as like organic and flowy and like cartoony as you maybe would have for some children’s books. So I like where we ended up sort of in the middle, it’s relatively simple, there’s not a lot of shading, but the overall like shapes and forms of the organic, the characters like Rocky are relatively accurate proportionally and then match well with like what we’re trying to do in terms of the accuracy of the environment and the fossils and like the rocks that are all behind them.

And then from there, it’s sort of a step by step process of getting lots of reference material in this case, because we’re trying to convey a pretty high degree of accuracy, finding photo references of the Bruce Trail, of the Niagara Escarpment, of the different environments, fossils, and rocks that we wanted, and then building off of those to create thumbnails for the different illustrations and then sort of refining those thumbnails into draft illustrations, no colour, and finally adding all of the colour blocks.

Typically you might go about doing like the thumbnails for the entire book first and then doing the draft outlines for all of it. And then for colour illustrations. In this case, I sort of worked page by page. I found that to be like a little bit better, partially because this was my first time creating something so comprehensive. A lot of the illustrations I’ve done before are for a scientific paper or, you know, for a two page spread in something. So the uniformity isn’t necessarily as important because I have a smaller piece. With this though, it’s like I needed to figure out, okay, what’s my workflow for a page? How do I actually get to the point where like, I’m colouring this as I want and it’s like, how do I get that and not spend hours and hours and hours on it? So it was sort of refining that process. So I sort of went page by page as we went through, which was fun.

I think if I now that I’ve done it, I think I’d go back and maybe try and do like a more stepwise approach for all of it. But it was fun to go through it. It was fun to see each page come to life. And then send that off to Katie and Carolyn and be like “All right, here’s another one.” We can look at it, sort of the book slowly build up.

Veronica

Okay, awesome. Thanks so much. So how do you go about taking these pretty complicated topics, you know, you’re talking about fossils, you’re talking about the Niagara Escarpment. These are pretty like, you know, high level ideas. And how do you actually make them fun and entertaining and accessible to kids while still keeping the educational aspect of it? I feel like that is a huge challenge. So how has that process been for you guys?

Katie

It really was a challenge. I think one of the easiest ways to make things a little bit more accessible is to make them relevant to people by giving them examples that they have clear knowledge of. So when we’re talking about sedimentary rocks and discussing erosion and how sediments break away over time, giving the example of Niagara Falls, which is this world famous waterfall, is a great way to show people how you can break down rocks over time, if you’ve got this water that’s so powerful.

And so one of the things that Alex and Carolyn and I discussed quite a bit was how to put together not only this narrative story, but also have real tangible facts and information in it along the way. And so the way we ended up doing this, which Alex can talk a little bit more maybe about the design aspect of all of this, because it was definitely a complicated ask as we started adding these text boxes called Lily’s Lore. And so these are real informational facts that you can kind of follow along the book. And they are at a slightly higher level than the narrative text, but it makes it a little bit more accessible to multiple grade levels instead of just grade four. Because if you’re interested in the facts, you can go ahead and read all those fact boxes. And for younger students, you can really just focus on the story of this fun raccoon who learns about the fossils and rocks in his backyard.

Alex

Yeah, I think it’s like exactly what I would have said. And it’s like the perfect marriage of making this an educational resource, but also an engaging and informative and fun piece of media for elementary school kids to engage with. And in my day job when I’m working, I primarily work with companies that are like communicating drug information to patients and to health care providers. We do this exact same thing where not everyone is coming to whatever resource you’re making with the same level of knowledge or interest. And so to have these optional like deep dives is what we would sort of refer to it at work, where people can explore at their leisure and choice to engage with content at a higher level and learn more allows that freedom and ability for it to impact and be used by more people.

And so I think that was, you know, the particularly interesting part here. It means that the teacher can, you know, go over some of the narrative and then focus specifically on this aspect of Lily’s Lore and dive into that and how it relates to the curriculum. It also means that, you know, a particularly precocious kid can ask their parents about that particular fact if they’re reading it or just go through and read all the Lily’s Lore pieces, because they’re really interested in the facts and, you know, they couldn’t care less about the narrative and vice versa. And I think that flexibility is what helps it, you know, bridge that gap of complexity and accessibility and engagement for the particular audience.

Veronica

That’s so cool. So you kind of have almost different levels of engagement and complexity, which I feel like would also probably help reach different age groups too, because the younger kids, again, like you said, can just skip through, whereas older kids or more interested kids can, can read through all the facts. So that’s really that’s a really cool, cool thing that you guys have done.

Why do you think it is so important for scientists to create content like this and to communicate science to the public and specifically kids?

Katie

So I would say that science communication is so important to make the research we’re doing accessible to the public. Not only does the public have, they’re stakeholders in this research that’s often federally funded. So my Mitacs postdoc is a federally funded postdoc. So this research should be communicated to the local stakeholders and community members that are affected by this research, but it also by giving this knowledge in an accessible and inclusive format it empowers communities to make their own informed decisions and the other thing to keep in mind is the Niagara Escarpment is home to like 7.5 million people in the Hamilton, Niagara, Toronto area alone. And so it’s accessible to all those people that can come and explore these natural areas.

Alex

Yeah, and I think I could get on a massive soapbox here, just like, you know, the importance of accurate information that is, you know, peer reviewed and shown in an accessible way, especially given so much misinformation out there. But like with that in context, I think it’s just science is most useful when it is communicated to everyone. I don’t think it’s meant to be something that should be like siloed away or not shared or not talked about.

And so to truly make research and knowledge impactful, it does need to be disseminated and it needs to be taught. And I think it needs to specifically be done at a level that is accessible. Right? So I mentioned peer review things and we talked about this a bit earlier. You know, that’s great, but the majority of people are not reading like Nature, and that’s the biggest journal there is. So once you get into smaller pieces, it’s like, okay, people aren’t engaging with that, but they might engage with a journey about Rocky the Raccoon and his friend Lily.

And I think it’s useful for folks to know about their natural local environment. It’s important for people to have that knowledge so that they can think about things like conservation and the environment. And I think it’s, you know, particularly important for kids that they have this exposure to the different things that they can do apart from sort of like the standard, you know, career path ideas that they may otherwise be exposed to just because that’s what’s, you know, typically show to them. So yeah, I can probably talk for an entire podcast episode, but I think that those are the main pieces that it’s most impactful when it’s communicated like this.

Katie

And even with the GeoHikes project, a lot of the work that ended up going into the GeoHikes project once the locations were selected was actually reading these 100 page long Ontario Geologic Survey reports or peer reviewed publications, and taking that knowledge that people have gathered over decades and translating it into bite sized pieces of information that people can easily understand, and that doesn’t take as long to comprehend.

So a lot of people do not have time to read these 100 page reports. And they’re great reports, they’ve done awesome, detailed geologic work that probably took several summers to collect all that field data. But for the general public, they need to know the facts and how the geology actually influences them. So they want to know: Where is the water going? Can I drink it? Is it going to be in my basement? These are the questions that people care about. And so it’s important to take that information and not get bogged down in the details of permeability versus porosity and instead focus on what people need to know most.

Veronica

Yes, exactly. If people don’t see how it’s relevant to them, they’re really not going to put the effort to try to understand complicated topics like, why would I? It doesn’t affect my life. So that’s really that’s really cool.

Is the content just for kids or can adults also get something out of the book as well?

Katie

I would say that it’s designed for kids, but I have sent it to several adults to edit and it’s interesting and exciting because a lot of the paleontologists are learning about minerals and a lot of the mineralogists are learning about paleontology. So because the book is so interdisciplinary, some of the Lily’s Lore fun facts are surprising to even experts because a lot of our expert researchers we’re very focused on what we do in our field. So when we start to put these interdisciplinary pieces together, even kids books, you can learn a lot from.

Alex

Yeah, I’m biased. I mean, if you’re watching this as a video clip, then you can see behind me on the shelves, I’ve got a ton of graphic novels. So I obviously think that like a visual medium like this is appropriate for all ages. But, you know, yes, you know, specifically targeted elementary school students. But I think it’s also fun to engage with if you’re just curious and you don’t have a lot of, you know, knowledge or experience. This is an excellent entry point. It’s great if you have kids or, you know, loved ones who have kids as well to share and learn about with them. And then it partners so well with things like the GeoHikes. So, you know, that’s something that everybody can enjoy. This can sort of set the stage for that. And then you’ve got the knowledge to actually go out and experience it. And you don’t have to be a kid to enjoy that by any means.

Veronica

So yeah, exactly. Yeah, I personally am so excited to actually get to learn some things because I don’t know a ton about the Niagara Escarpment and so I’m excited. Where can people find the book?

Katie

So the book will be available open access online on GeoscienceINFO.com and the teacher’s guide will also be available there as well. And we’ve applied for some funding, we’re hoping to get some QR codes along some of the trails so that people can scan them and access the book while they’re walking along some of these areas that Rocky might have been exploring along the way in the book.

Veronica

Awesome. That’s so fun. So yeah.

Katie

And the book will also be available in French by the fall. So it will be offered in English and French, which is really important because there’s not that many resources for science education in the elementary school age group in French and English. So that will be great to have that resource.

Veronica

Okay, that’s awesome. I didn’t realize that. That’s very exciting. And of course it’ll be free and open access for everyone. Which is important.

Alex

The best part.

Veronica

Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Okay. So I always end my podcast by asking what is your favourite geologic feature in Canada?

Katie

Do you want to go first Alex? Go Ahead.

Alex

I can go first. I love Lake Superior. And so the easy answer for me is Sleeping Giant in Thunder Bay. I’ve had the pleasure of being able to canoe across most of Ontario and starting in Ottawa and working our way out to Kenora, right? Yeah, it was very, very, very cool. Slight tangent, I’m Metis and so essentially it was part of an expedition organized by the Metis Nation of Ontario where they got Metis youth and we got to retrace the waterways that the voyageurs would have taken up until Kenora.

Veronica

Wow. That’s awesome.

Alex

And yeah, it was unreal. And all of Ontario is particularly beautiful, like I like all of the waterways, but Lake Superior has like a very special place in my heart. There is something about the size of Lake. I think the fact it’s like so pristine, so many parts of it are untouched as well. So you get to a campsite and you’re like, I think I’m one of like maybe ten people who’s been here this summer, maybe this year, maybe this decade. So that’s particularly cool. And then the indigenous connection to Sleeping Giant I think is so important and so beautiful.
And also it just is such a striking image with the lake and yeah, yeah. So I love Sleeping GIant. So that’s my easy answer.

Veronica

Awesome. So cool. How about you Katie?

Katie
For me, my favourite geologic feature is the Burgess Shale. So out in the Rocky Mountains, right on the British Columbia, Alberta border, we’ve got this exceptional record of fossils from the Cambrian. So these are about 505 million years old, but these are the first animals on Earth and they’re exceptional because they’re all soft bodied. Most of the fossil record is hard parts like bones and teeth. And so to have this exceptional fossil record in Canada is pretty incredible. And so that’s what I’m working on right now at the Royal Ontario Museum, trying to make sense of some of some of the early plant life or seaweed that would have been supporting these diverse animal communities.

Veronica

Okay, That is so cool. Is that is that related to Charlotte Spruzen’s research as well?

Katie

So Charlotte and I work up in the Arctic together. I also love working in the Yukon. And so Charlotte and I spent three or four summers up in the Arctic together working on significantly older rocks. So those rocks that we worked on up in the Arctic, Charlotte helped me gather fossils that are about 950 million years old. And then I helped her with a bunch of the reef work, that’s all about 775 to 850 million. So Charlotte’s done a ton of work on her Ph.D. doing all this exceptional mapping and logging sections in the pouring rain. And she’s been an incredible hard worker and putting all these big details together. Her project looks like it’s going to have some amazing and impactful results in terms of understanding how reefs kind of change through time, which is even something we hint at in the Rocky book a little bit, talking about corals and how reefs change through time.
So it’s important, even in terms of the Niagara Escarpment.

Veronica

That’s so cool. Just for people listening, I interviewed Charlotte a few podcast episodes ago about her research in the Yukon, so that’s yeah, such a cool connection. I love that. I knew that you guys knew each other, but I just wasn’t sure, like, yeah if you’d done research together, so that’s super fun. All right. Well, thank you guys so much for joining me. This has been so much fun.

For our listeners, feel free to head to GeoscienceINFO.com, where you can find Rocky the Raccoon. And if you are a teacher, there is a teacher’s guide available there for free as well that will help you integrate this amazing resource into your classroom. So thank you guys so much for joining me.

Alex

It was a pleasure.

Katie

Thanks so much.

Outro

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Beneath Your Feet, a geoscience podcast. I’m Veronica Klassen, science communicator and geology enthusiast. As a reminder, please note that the opinions and views expressed by our guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the APGO Education Foundation. If you want to learn more, visit us at GeoscienceINFO.com, where you can find our GeoHikes, podcast transcripts, and additional resources. You can also follow us on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok at GeoscienceINFO or on LinkedIn and Facebook at the APGO Education Foundation. Stay curious and keep exploring the incredible world Beneath Your Feet.

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