Florence Bascom, geologist, holding a compass
Florence Bascom Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Women's History Archives at Smith College
Florence Bascom
Florence Bascom was one of the first female geologists in the United States and her fellow scientists thought she was one of the nation’s most important geologists. She lived from 1862 until 1945 and is well known for her work at Bryn Mawr College where she taught for many years.
Bascom studied mineral crystals by looking at them with a microscope. She also studied metamorphic rocks, how mountains form, and how rocks from mountain erode into sand.
At the time she went to college, it wasn’t easy for a woman to go to study for advanced degrees in the United States. But that didn’t stop Florence Bascom! She earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in geology from Johns Hopkins University. She was the second woman to ever earn a Ph.D. in geology in the United States.
Florence started teaching geology at Bryn Mawr, a women’s college, in 1895. She collected minerals, rocks, and fossils for the college and taught hundreds of students over the years, many of whom became successful geologists too!
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Our
online store includes fun
classroom activities for you and your students.
Issues of NESTA's quarterly journal, The Earth Scientist are also full of classroom activities on different topics in Earth and space science!
You might also be interested in:
How did life evolve on Earth? The answer to this question can help us understand our past and prepare for our future. Although evolution provides credible and reliable answers, polls show that many people turn away from science, seeking other explanations with which they are more comfortable.
...more
Sometimes rocks are metamorphosed over large areas that are the size of many states or even several countries. This is called regional metamorphism. How could this happen? What force has the power to
...more
Geology is the study of rocks and geologists are the people who study them! There are many different types of geologists. Some of the common types are listed below. Mineralogists study minerals. Petrologist
...more
Florence Bascom was one of the first female geologists in the United States and her fellow scientists thought she was one of the nation’s most important geologists. She lived from 1862 until 1945 and
...more
Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who lived between 1885-1962. He investigated atomic structure, modifying Rutherford's old model of an atom. Bohr also claimed that an atom's chemical properties are determined
...more
Marie Curie was a physicist and chemist who lived between 1867-1934. She contributed greatly to our understanding of radioactivity and the effects of x-rays. She was born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw,
...more
Albert Einstein was a German physicist who lived between 1879-1955. Probably the most well-known scientist of the twentieth century, Einstein came up with many original theories and invented modern physics.
...more
Robert Goddard was an American physicist who lived between 1882-1945. He was a pioneer of modern rocketry who discovered that liquid fuel is more efficient than solid fuel. Although Goddard's first rocket
...more
