Water plays important roles in the
ways people source, produce,
transport, use and dispose of a
wide range of products, including those
that come from petroleum, such as fuels,
solvents, petrochemicals and plastics. To
help the public better understand these
important processes, petroleum geologists
are called on to participate in Earth Science
Week 2021, which celebrates the theme of
“Water Today and for the Future.”
This theme engages young people and
others in exploring the importance of water
– and water science — for living things
Earth systems, and the many activities
that people undertake that depend on and/
or affect water. People of all backgrounds,
ages and abilities are taking part in events
this year to build understanding of water’s
role in timely topics including energy,
climate change, the environment, natural
hazards, technology, industry, agriculture,
recreation, economics and more.
Organized by the American Geosciences
Institute in partnership with dozens of
organizations, including AAPG, Earth
Science Week 2021 will be Oct. 10-16. AGI
and partners provide materials, activities
and opportunities for audiences in both
formal and informal education settings,
including some new resources as well as
familiar ones.
Wellspring of Online Resources
Users find that the Earth Science
Week Online Toolkit, available at
www.EarthSciWeek.org/online-toolkit,
introduced in 2018, has become a growing
compendium of visually rich resources
such as classroom activities, posters,
news articles, career information, teacher
professional development resources and
more. More than a dozen highly visual
resources dealing with this year’s water
science theme have been recently added
to the Online Toolkit, including posters,
infographics and other items covering
topics such as ocean acidification, coral
reef restoration, groundwater, floods,
hurricanes and the hydrologic cycle.
These educational resources, developed
by AGI and partners, include many specific
to this year’s theme as well as others that
deal with different topics. Some can be
found in the printed Earth Science Week
Toolkit, while others are available only
electronically. Online Toolkit resources are
organized to support the Next Generation
Science Standards. Users can search
by type of resource, theme, language,
disciplinary core ideas, crosscutting
concepts, science and engineering
practices and more.
In addition, the Education GeoSource
database at AmericanGeoSciences.org
provides access to a rich collection of free
geoscience curricula, classroom activities,
teacher professional development
opportunities, science education standards,
virtual field trips, teaching ancillaries and
other education resources, created by AGI
and many other organizations.
New to Education GeoSource are
a number of “curated collections” that
focus on resources either provided by
or endorsed by a specific organization
and highlighting this year’s water science
theme. For instance, the Soil Science
Society of America collection features
nearly a dozen activities, labs and videos
on topics including soil physics, biology,
and chemistry, conservation, soils in
urban environments, and water. Activities
span K-12 and are aligned to NGSS
disciplinary core ideas. One activity, for
instance, called “Got Clean Lakes? Thank
Your Soil,” guides students to explore soil,
rainfall, runoff, landcover, land use and
reservoirs.
NASA’s Global Precipitation
Measurement Mission collection
showcases 12 activities, career
information, datasets, videos and speaker
guides based on GPM resources and
data. These NGSS-aligned activities are
designed for students from kindergarten to
the introductory undergraduate level, with
an emphasis on elementary and middle
school. A sample item is “Who’s Using GPM
Data,” profiling people and projects using
GPM data to address some of society’s big
challenges.
Other organizations will be adding their
own curated collections to highlight the
resources they provide and/or endorse
for use by educators on this year’s theme
and other Earth Science Week themes.
The curated collections also help to bring
attention to the organizations and their
mission in the geoscience community and
geoscience education.
Going Global
While Earth Science Week has been
celebrated in countries around the world
for some time, the program actively emphasizes global engagement as never
before. Over the past two decades, Earth
Science Week has spread from the United
States to more than 25 nations around
the world, including Australia, Bangladesh,
Canada, India, Japan, Portugal, Spain and
the United Kingdom. Now AGI is offering
new opportunities and guidance for
government agencies, private corporations
and other organizations around the world
looking to get involved.
Language is not necessarily a barrier,
as AGI makes key materials, such as
the program logo, available online for
translation into languages other than
English. Similarly, event locations may
vary from secondary-school classrooms
to university settings, museums, science
centers, parks, corporate facilities and
homes. And because
Earth Science Week
can be celebrated anytime that works in
a given location, the timing of the event
also does not need to be an obstacle for
partners in parts of the world where school
schedules or other factors might make
times other than October a better choice
for the celebration.
Earth Science Week’s annual
photography and video contests now
are open to audiences around the
world. Individual members of all AGI
Member Societies and members of AGI’s
International Associate Societies are
eligible to participate in the photo contest,
while the video contest is open to everyone.
Though previously open only to residents
of the United States, the contests have
always been a major part of Earth Science
Week. For mor information, visit www.EarthSciWeek.org/contests.
There is a special competition for
educators as well. Given annually, the
Edward C. Roy Jr. Award for Excellence in
K-8 Science Teaching is presented to one
teacher of grades K-8 in the United States
or Key Stages 1-3 in the United Kingdom
each year. The award recognizes leadership
and innovation in Earth science education
and provides the winner with a cash prize
and an additional travel grant to attend the
National Science Teaching Association
Annual Conference. For more information,
visit AmericanGeoSciences.org/Education/Awards/Roy.
No matter where you are, you can join
in the fun and learning of Earth Science
Week.