Earth Science Week Dips Into Water

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.

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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.

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