UTRA Schedule

Weekly Goals (to be completed by the end of the day Tuesday):

Week 1 (30 June-3 July):

  • all materials cataloged/inventoried with context information
  • 2 solid research questions (and one backup question in case there are equipment problems, etc.). If you’re stuck, think about your lit review: what questions have people asked, what techniques have they used, and what have they found? are any of those questions/techniques applicable to you and your materials? who do you need to be talking to here at Brown (chemists? geologists? engineers? archaeologists? numismatists?)?
  • get in touch with outside resources to meet with you to discuss your materials, the techniques you’d like to use, and the logistics of training/using their equipment.
  • update your wiki page: materials overview (what do you have? where did it come from?), your questions, comments on the work that has been done in the past (or things that no one seems to address), questions and stumbling blocks you might be coming across. THE WIKI IS IMPORTANT because then we can see what you are stuck on, see if there might be a source you’ve missed that could help out, etc.
  • update the XRD wiki page. Work as a team to get the research/background info part done. This needs to be done by THURSDAY.
  • read about XRD and try to understand as much about it as you can. What is it?
  • we will start sectioning and doing optical microscopy work Wednesday, so you need to have those samples READY in a separate labeled bag, and bring a thumb-drive to save any images you take on the optical microscope.

Week 2 (6-11 July):

  • XRD – Thursday and Friday (2-3 coins done? more?)
  • Optical microscope work – continue
  • Petrography – meeting with Tina Calvin (Tuesday AM)
  • SEM – not working
  • XRF – meeting with David Murray, Environmental Science and Technical Manager (Thursday 2pm) . For more about the portable, non-destructive XRF unit, go to [link]

Week 3 (14-18 July):

  • Finish XRD of coins
  • Continue optical microscopy and sample preparation
  • XRF – Thursday morning
  • SEM – Friday 12-4pm
  • Mid-point Lab Report due by Monday 21 July
  • Carrie and Krysta – compiling reference collection of known chemical/physical data (metal and glass)

Week 4 (21-25 July):

  • UTRA presentation for Krysta’s class, Monday 2:30pm
  • SEM – Tuesday 2-4pm, Wednesday 12-4pm, Thursday 12-2pm

Week 5 (28 July-1 August):

  • SEM – Monday
  • XRD report finished by Wednesday

Week 6 (4-8 August)

  • Conclusions and wrap up