Initial Publication Date: October 9, 2025

NAGTNews October 2025 Header

NAGTNews October Celebration
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News and Announcements

Members matter: Renew today, and invite a colleagueRenew Membership

Renew your NAGT membership for 2026 to ensure that you continue to receive your member benefits like this monthly newsletter and the 15% discount on registration to GSA Connects. Now is also a great time to invite a colleague to join as well! Do you have new faculty in your department, or a new graduate student? Tell them about NAGT, and encourage them to join. If they join now, their membership will be valid through the end of 2026.

Wondering how you can make a difference? Support us

Group projectsAre you looking for ways to support the work that NAGT is doing to improve teaching and learning about the Earth, helping to prepare the next generation of Earth scientists, geoscience educators, and education researchers? Donate today to our program fund to help us amplify all the work we do. We are proud that 83% of all donations go directly to programming. Please consider an additional donation this year.

Nominate students for the NAGT/USGS Fellowship Program

NAGT is accepting nominations for the NAGT/USGS Cooperative Fellowship Program at this time (due October 30), despite the ongoing federal hiring freeze and federal government shutdown.The USGS will decide to solicit applications from nominated students when federal government employees return to work and have more information about the federal budget and the hiring freeze. We hope to avoid asking students to go through the work of applying and interviewing if they cannot ultimately be hired for the internship. All students who are nominated will receive a certificate of nomination from NAGT, regardless of whether students can apply for fellowship positions.

Nominate a student by October 30

Read NAGT's full statement on the current state of the Cooperative Summer Fellowship Program

NAGT Activities at the 2025 GSA Annual Meeting

San Antonio, Texas - October 19-22, 2025GSA Connects 2025

GSA Connects is a fantastic opportunity to connect with geoscientists from around the world, present your work, and participate in critical conversations shaping the future of the geosciences. NAGT is sponsoring sessions, short courses, meetings, and a field trip at the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America in San Antonio, Texas, from October 19–22, 2025. Don't miss sessions highlighting key issues in geoscience educators.

  • NAGT Booth: For those who will be onsite in San Antonio, NAGT will be at booth #716 in the exhibit hall. The NAGT booth will be open all week. If you are interested in volunteering to staff the booth, please fill out our volunteer spreadsheet or email Brianna Douglas (bdouglas@carleton.edu).
  • Informal "NAGTea" Gatherings: Visit the NAGT booth for informal gatherings around a variety of topics! Hot water, tea, and mugs will be available—or bring your own! Gatherings will happen at the table at the NAGT booth or adjacent tables in the exhibit hall, as needed. These will be scheduled closer to the conference.
  • Association Business Meetings: NAGT meetings, including the annual business meeting of the association, and meetings for each Division, will be held virtually around the time of GSA. These meetings are open to all NAGT members and provide opportunities to hear about NAGT activities in the past year and plans for the future. Keep an eye out for scheduling details as they become available. We hope you will join us.
  • Socials and Receptions: Join GSA Geoscience Education Division for the Education Reception at Iron Cactus River Walk (200 River Walk Suite 100) on Monday, October 20 from 6-8 pm CT. The GSA-GED is providing hors d'ouvres and nonalcoholic beverages, and alcoholic beverages will be available for purchase. Bring a friend!
  • Get 20% off products from the NAGT store during GSA (October 19-22)!

Exclusive 15% Discount for GSA Connects 2025 Registration

As a member of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, you are eligible for an exclusive 15% discount on registration for GSA Connects 2025, taking place 19-22 October 2025 in San Antonio, Texas! To redeem your discount, use the unique discount code: 25CONNECT_NAGT

Learn More about GSA Connects

EER Logo 2026 Earth Educators' Rendezvous

University of South Carolina in Columbia, SC, 20-23 July 2026

Sign up to be an EER Exhibitor

Share your products or services with EER participants by taking advantage of the University of South Carolina School of the Earth, Ocean, and Environmental Sciences venue. Exhibitors can showcase their products and services throughout the event in a dedicated exhibitor area. Exhibitors will have dedicated time to share information during the Exhibitor Showcase.

Sponsor EER2026

Gain visibility for your organization, program, or institution with EER Participants who work in the Earth, ocean, and atmospheric sciences and allied fields in the full range of institution types and organizations around the country. Attendees include college and university faculty, graduate students, education professionals, K-12 teachers, and administrators, at a wide range of career stages.

AI in Geoscience Education

GeoEd-AI-small The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) is rolling out a new website for Earth educators as they navigate the pedagogic twists and turns of Generative AI. This new website supports Earth educators as they navigate the pedagogic twists and turns of Generative AI. Get pointers to key resources, share your experiences, and sign up for notifications about future developments, including an upcoming webinar.

Join JGE's Associate Editor TeamJGE-73-4-cover

Applications due 1 November 2025

Join the Journal of Geoscience Education's passionate community of Associate Editors! Contribute to the Journal of Geoscience Education's peer review process and join our passionate community of Associate Editors. Applications are due 1 November 2025 to be considered for the 2026-2028 term.

Apply Now

Publications & Resources Header

Journal of Geoscience Education

Article of the MonthJGE Featured Article

Each month, the editorial staff for the Journal of Geoscience Education (JGE) selects a paper to be freely accessible. For October 2025, they selected "Place as context, place as inquiry: A phenomenographic study of teachers' conceptions of place-based education in the CZ-CREST program" by Regina Toolin and Michael Blouin and published online 16 July 2025. Congratulations authors!

The Journal of Geoscience Education is always looking for submissions related to learning and teaching in the geosciences and related domains.

Submit a paper to JGE

In The Trenches

ITT Logo In the Trenches (ITT) is an interactive online publication designed to provide a venue for NAGT members to learn about and discuss teaching strategies and resources, the work of NAGT committees, sections, and divisions, and other ideas relevant to Earth educators and education researchers. Share your work through ITT!

Check out ITT's September Articles

Suggest ITT Content Submit an Article

Teach the Earth Teach the Earth Header

Teach the Earth (TTE) is a portal to thousands of resources from dozens of Earth Education websites. Managed by NAGT, this portal supports teaching and learning about the Earth by providing online resources for K-12 and undergraduate educators in the geosciences and related fields. Resources include classroom activities, course descriptions and syllabi, information about pedagogical strategies, topical collections, and more.

Featured Exemplary Resource

Discover Plate Tectonics by Angela Daneshmand, Santiago Canyon College, is a student-centered activity for a synchronous online course where students access Google Slides to complete during a video conferencing session (Zoom) in breakout rooms. Students are introduced to plate tectonics through a series of scaffolded mini-activities, including active learning jigsaws, group research and presentations, and assessments. Students familiarize themselves with types of plate boundaries, features found at plate boundaries using the Jules Verne Voyager Jr. website, and use GPS data to visualize direction and speed of plate motion. Additional activities suggested include using Google Earth to visualize plate boundaries, drawing a transect across a plate boundary, and calculating the rate of plate motion using the Hawaiian Islands.

CCT-WS_EER24 Help update valuable teaching resources - contribute resource updates to the Community Contribution Tool

Have you made modifications to resources on SERC sites? Use the Community Contribution Tool (CCT) to share with others and keep these valued online resources current. Many data-rich InTeGrate and GETSI modules were recently updated. CCT is now available on all SERC-host activities.

Awards and Recognition

Congratulations to all the 2025 NAGT Award Winners!

NAGT, GSA GER, & GeoCUR hosted the annual Virtual Joint Awards Ceremony on 26 September 2025. Members from each organization celebrated the incredible achievements of the awardees and welcomed our new officers. This virtual event was open to everyone, and the recording is available through this link: Awards Ceremony recording.

Learn more about this year's Award Winners in our In The Trenches articles that feature their biographical sketches.

Do you have good news related to your geoscience education work that you would like to share with the NAGT community? Submit it to NAGT's Community Kudos!

Workshops and Webinars

NAGT Sponsored Events at 2025 GSA Connects

Transforming Undergraduate Geoscience Teaching: Implementing Recommendations from a National Academies Report

San Antonio, Texas - Saturday, October 18, 2025, 1:00-5:00 PM

Explore the 2025 report from the National Academies titled Transforming Undergraduate STEM Teaching. Central to the report are seven core principles that underlie effective teaching, along with recommendations for how to implement them. Our focus will be on applying these principles specifically to undergraduate STEM education in the geosciences. Through interactive discussion and practical exercises, participants will engage with the evidence behind the principles and explore how they can be translated into effective teaching strategies. By the end of the workshop, participants will be familiar with the core principles and the research supporting them, be able to describe specific teaching strategies aligned with each principle, and begin developing an action plan to implement these strategies in their geoscience courses or departmental policies and practices.

Register Today

NAGT Sponsored Field Trip at 2025 GSA Connects - An Educator's Look at West Texas Geology

San Antonio, Texas - all day, each day from Thursday, October 16 - Saturday, October 18, 2025

This tour highlights the geological wonders between El Paso and San Antonio, emphasizing the Franklin Mountains, Guadalupe Mountains, and Carlsbad Caverns. Participants will explore tectonic, sedimentary, and karst landscapes. We plan a day and a half in the field exploring these sites as well as "meta" level discussions about field trip organization and facilitation. We hope for vibrant and rich discussions set in some of the most mind-blowing geological sites of west Texas.

Register Today

Traveling Workshops: Bring Our Experienced Leaders to You

twp_program.png The Traveling Workshops Program (TWP) brings NAGT's professional development program to you, working with you to customize a workshop to meet your group's needs. The TWP has well-tested workshop sessions on adapting to change, (re)designing your courses and curriculum, inclusive mentoring, supporting all students, and more. Are you preparing for a program review or responding to feedback from one? Have you seen changes in the faculty in your department through new hires or retirements? Do you feel you could do a better job serving your students? We can help you! Choose your workshop or learn more about the program.

Request a Traveling Workshop

Catch past NAGT Webinars on YouTube!

YouTube 30px Did you miss a webinar hosted by NAGT? Check out the NEW NAGT Webinar Series YouTube Channel! Find a selection of recordings from webinars in the series and sponsored projects at your fingertips. Remember to subscribe!

Section and Division Highlights

Regional SectionsNAGT Section Map

NAGT Regional Sections are the grassroots of geoscience education in North America. The 2023 reorganization of Sections focused members' efforts on regional issues. If you haven't connected with your section leadership, we encourage you to do so! Check out the Regional Section Web pages to learn more about your Section and efforts to engage and support geoscience education in your region.

Topical Divisions

Students at Petrified Forest NPGeo2YC Division

The Geo2YC Division is a home for NAGT members who have a shared professional interest in geoscience education at two-year colleges. Two-year college faculty are an integral part of NAGT.

Geo2YC Newsletter

GER logoGeoscience Education Research (GER) Division

The Geoscience Education Research Division (GER) is committed to the promotion of high-quality, scholarly research in geoscience education that improves teaching and learning in K-12, higher education, and informal learning environments.

Join GER

Teacher Education (TED) Division

The NAGT Teacher Education Division (TED) seeks to improve geoscience teaching by improving teacher content and pedagogical knowledge and by encouraging research on best teaching practices. TED is in search of a new Media Director! We have a great leadership team. Do you want to know what we've been up to? Do you want to stay informed about how the Teacher Education Division supports you, as members of NAGT and TED? Find us on Facebook!

Join TED

From Our Members

Midweek Momentum: CEEE Teaching Strategies Professional Learning Series

Online — Wednesdays, October 8 - December 3, 2025, 3 pm PT | 4 pm MT | 5 pm CT | 6 pm ET

Join this free virtual workshop series created for middle and high school educators. Each session is designed to focus on practical teaching strategies that can be implemented in classrooms immediately, giving you tools and ideas you can put into practice the next day. With an emphasis on instructional moves and resources that exemplify research-based pedagogy, the series highlights approaches that are both effective and adaptable across grade levels and subject areas. Whether you are looking to refine your current methods or discover new strategies, this series offers actionable support to enhance teaching and learning in meaningful ways.

CEEE's free monthly virtual webinar series, Midweek Momentum, is designed to cultivate teaching strategies such as data sensemaking, place-based teaching, and action frameworks to increase climate resilience. Starting in October 2025, join educators from Data Puzzles, Data Lens, HEART Force, and more to learn about teaching strategies educators can implement immediately into their curriculum with an emphasis on instructional moves and access to a resource that exemplifies the practice.

To follow the campaign, make sure to follow our social media platforms and use #ResearchtoResources.

Learn more & Register

Exchanging Knowledge in Geoscience Education Research

Are you interested in enhancing your research design and methodology skills in an informal, collaborative setting? The GER Monthly Knowledge Exchange is here to help! This casual, interactive monthly Zoom gathering seeks to create a forum for the GER (Geoscience Education Research) community to ask questions and get input from peers without the pressure of formal presentations, build collective capacity, and share resources, ideas, and experiences on a specific topic. No prep required––just bring your curiosity and insights to share!

  • Date: Thursday, October 16th, 2025
  • Topic: How are DBER scholars supported at their various institutions? What models of institutional for DBER exist?
  • Time: 9:30 am - 10:30 am PT | 10:30 am - 11:30 am MT | 11:30 am - 12:30 pm CT | 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm ET
  • Join the Meeting:

We'd love your input! Suggest a topic for a future session by adding it to our topic calendar.

Also, visit the summary of shared insights from our prior meeting on "Using qualitative and quantitative survey data" here.

Let's learn and grow together. See you there!

NASEM Status of Discipline-Based Education Research

Hybrid Event — 17 November 2025 9 am - 6 pm ET and 18 November 2025 9 am - 4:30 pm ET

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine is hosting a workshop on November 17-18, 2025, to discuss the status of discipline-based education research, such as geoscience education research. You can learn more about the workshop details and register to participate online by going to the Registration Site. You can also include a request to attend in person.

Career Hub Bannier

Career Hub Image Looking to connect with a wide audience in the geoscience education community? Post your job openings, postdoctoral positions, internships, assistantships, or undergraduate research opportunities on the NAGT Career Hub! Your posting will be featured on the NAGT Career Hub website, posted on NAGT's social media, and included in next month's NAGTNews newsletter!

Assistant Professor of Instruction - Geology at Texas State University

The Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at Texas State University seeks a non-tenure-track Assistant Professor of Instruction in Geology to begin in Spring 2026, with a focus on excellence in classroom teaching and supporting the Geology Minor program. This promotion-eligible position is renewable annually for up to five years, based on successful performance reviews.

Assistant Professor of Hydrogeology at Western Washington University

Review of applications begins December 15, 2025 and continues until position is filled. The position starting date will be September 16, 2026.

Rock and Mineral Exchange

Available Samples Wet Cobblestones of Goettingen

Desired Specimens

Post available samples and desired specimens in the Rock and Mineral Exchange


Questions? Comments? Reach out to the NAGT Media Editor, Cheryl Manning, at media-editor@nagt.org.

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