Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi, I'm Callan and today I'm here with Stacey Camp.

Stacey, can you tell us where we are and what you do?

I am an archeologist and anthropologist here at Michigan State University.

All of these different areas represent different archeological sites or different holes in the ground.

I am an associate professor of anthropology and the director of the MSU Campus Archeology program.

Woah thats so cool.

Anthropology is a huge field that essentially studies people in the past and in the present.

There are a lot of different subfields and archeology is one of them.

So archeologist work both in the field and in the lab.

We often get called out to archeological sites where we'll excavate them and document them.

Once we pull artifacts out of the excavation units, we bring them into a lab.

We try to date the artifacts and figure out where they were manufactured.

Where we're standing right now is where we made an amazing discovery here on Michigan State University's campus.

We opened up two excavation units and we discovered the foundation of the first observatory here on campus that dates the 1880s.

All right.

These lines here on the ground penetrating radar might show us the outline of a building.

What is ground penetrating radar and why is a used?

Ground penetrating radar, is a large machine that kind of looks like a giant lawnmower.

Duck.

We run it across the landscape where we think there might be something important below the ground.

If we find something on our computers, we know exactly where to go back and find that data.

So, Callan do you want to give it a try?

Sure.

Excellent.

All right.

Trade places.

Okay.

Let's go.

Why are you so passionate about your job?

One of the things that I absolutely love about my job is working with students and training them in archeological methodologies.

I love training future archeologists.

Maybe I'll become a future archeologist.

We would love to have you in our lab that I'm really digging.

How STEM is involved in archeology.

Thanks to Stacey Camp.

Explore your possibilities.