Important Upcoming Deadlines

There are several upcoming workshops and opportunities with impending application dates that may be of interest to you and your students. Don't miss out on these great opportunities!

Teaching Service Learning in the Geosciences

Service–learning is an exciting way to energize and engage your students by giving them the opportunity to practice the concepts and skills you want them to learn by addressing problems that are important to your community. Please join us for an online workshop to explore the role of service learning in the geoscience curriculum, to hear from faculty with a wealth of experience teaching service learning projects and for an opportunity to develop or enhance a service learning project for your own use. The workshop will consist of a blend of synchronous presentations, online discussions, work time and collaborative efforts.

It's still not too late to take part. Even though the application deadline is past, there are still a few open places for this workshop. Just go to the workshop website and fill out the application if you're interested in taking part. The workshop will meet on February 3-5 and 8-9 with individual work time in between the joint sessions. Workshop Website

Developing Student Understanding of Complex Systems in the Geosciences

Many earth systems are complex, involving large numbers of strongly interdependent variables, feedback mechanisms, chaotic behavior, and multiple metastable states. Understanding these systems presents significant cognitive challenges, as students generally come to college with little experience considering such complex interactions (and considerable practice considering variables in isolation from one another). Yet the grand challenges facing our planet today are the consequence of the complexity of the Earth system, and solving these problems will require an understanding of that system.

On the Cutting Edge will offer a workshop April 18-20, at Carleton College, bringing together cognitive scientists, educational researchers, and geoscience educators to share successful strategies for developing student understanding of complex systems. The application deadline for the workshop is February 1. The operational costs of the workshop as well as room, board, and workshop materials are covered by a grant from NSF. Participants or their home institutions must provide transportation to and from the workshop. For more information about the workshop, or to fill out an application, see the workshop website. Workshop Website

Using on-line volcano monitoring data in college and university courses

This workshop, being held at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in July 2010, will bring geoscience faculty together to develop curricular materials that make use of the vast amounts of online data being generated from the ongoing observation of the Pu'u 'O'o vent on Mount Kilauea. The application deadline for participation is February 26, 2010. Workshop Website

Scholarships for Field Study

Each year, NAGT makes several $500 awards to undergraduate students to facilitate their study of field geoscience. The intent of the awards is to support students' participation in intensive field courses in any aspects of geoscience (including geophysics, soil science, hydrology, etc.) that focus on students practicing skills of field observation, data collection, analysis and synthesis. Encourage your students to apply if they will be taking a field course in 2010. Completed application packets must be received by February 16, 2010. Program Website