Name:

This will help you to explore your interests in science. Carefully read each question below and answer quickly. Do not think too long about any one question. Go with your first impulse. After you are done, the computer will score your answers.

Check all that apply:

1. Think animals, fish, people, or plants. What is there about living things that interests you?

2. Think about exploring. Do caves, gems, stones, volcanoes, or earthquakes interest you?

3. Think about the sky. Does the weather and how the air always changes interest you?

4. Think water. What is there about rivers, oceans, lakes, streams, or rain that interests you.

	I like to swim and I would like to scuba dive.
	I like to canoe, sail, or motorboat and explore.
	I like to walk and play in the rain.
	I enjoy fishing or watching fish swim.

Imagine yourself becoming an Earth system scientist. Which of the following global problems interest you the most? Write in the number that describes what you think about being on a team that tries to solve each problem.

1= I would not enjoy working on this team at all 2= I would enjoy working on this team a little 3= I would enjoy working on this team a lot 4= I would enjoy working on this team a whole lot

5. Inventing (for farmers) food crops that will resist disease.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

6. Studying and predicting the behavior of a volcano that is threatening a city or town full of people and animals.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

7. Trying to figure out how weather patterns like hailstorms, heatwaves, or frosts form and then to make recommendations to farmers about when and where to plant crops or how to protect their crops.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

8. Examining water to find out what new chemicals might be in it, and then figuring out where they came from and what affect they might have on the water’s quality.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

9. Studying natural hazards such as insect-borne diseases or overpopulation of predators to find out how to help humans who are suffering.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

10. Exploring and finding new sources of natural resources, such as drinkable water, oil, natural gas , and important metals or gems.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

11. Studying how factory and automobile emissions are changing the air we breathe.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

12. Studying what man-made things like businesses are doing that affect the water cycle: remember,  water evaporates, forms clouds, returns as rain, is transported via streams and rivers, and is stored in oceans or lakes.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

1= I would not enjoy learning about this topic at all 2= I would enjoy learning about this topic a little 3= I would enjoy learning about this topic a lot 4= I would enjoy learning about this topic a whole lot

13. Plants which can be used to make medicine.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

14. What a particular kind of soil is made of and how it might be made better for plants or food crops?

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

15. Air pollution and how we might fix it.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

16. The composition of the ocean’s waters and how we could alter them to conserve the Earth's resources.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

17. New types of organisms that live in oceans, streams or lakes.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

18. What makes a continent move, or a mountain form?

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19. The ozone layer and what it does for the Earth and its inhabitants.

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20. What effects will shrinking glaciers have on the oceans?

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As an Earth system scientist, you might have one of the following jobs. For each job, rate how much you would like to have that job.

1= I would not enjoy having this job at all 2= I would enjoy having this job a little 3= I would enjoy having this job a lot 4= I would enjoy having this job a whole lot

21. Biological ecologists study how humans interact with other living things as they try to design better places to live, as they discover new animals and try to save them, and as they try to protect the environment from pollution.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

22. Seismologists study the "how" and "why" and "what" of earthquakes, and they analyze the earthquake’s tremors to try and understand the structure of the Earth’s plates and core.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

23. Atmospheric scientists study weather’s processes; the global dynamics of climates and how they change; what solar radiation is and how it effects the air’s gases; and the role of atmospheric chemistry in ozone depletion, climate change, and pollution.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

24. Hydrologists are concerned with the Earth’s water from the moment of precipitation until it evaporates into the atmosphere or is discharged into the ocean; for example, they study river systems to predict what affects a flood might have on a particular place.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

25. Paleoecologists study ancient organisms like dinosaurs, or now-fossilized miniature bugs and plants, and the history of their relationships to their environment.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

26. Mineralogists study how rocks and metal deposits are formed underground, and where to find them.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

27. Environmental Meteorologists study the concentration and movement of air pollutants.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot

28. Marine geologists study the processes that lead to the formation of the ocean’s basins, and the ways in which geothermal and other geological processes interact with seawater.

not at all a little a lot a whole lot