Dave visits with Lee Vining High School junior Ellery McQuilkin about a very real science project that has earned her spots in the California State Science and Engineering Fair as well as the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair as a finalist.
High above her small town in California's Mono County, the Sierra crest towers with its rapidly shrinking glaciers. McQuilkin was one of the first to study the glacier that sits below 13,061' Mt. Dana in the Ansel Adams Wilderness bordering Yosemite National Park. Her work measuring the volume and movement of the glacier is an important study of how climate change is affecting Sierra's dwindling ice fields.
McQuilkin's advisor for the project, Yosemite National Park Geologist Greg Stock, also joins Dave to talk about the big picture of the Sierra's glacial past, present, and future as well as what it was like working with a very talented young scientist.
