CHRONOS'S EDUCATION AND OUTREACH PLAN: A COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP FOR FORMAL AND INFORMAL EDUCATION IN EARTH HISTORY

CHRONOS (www.chronos.org) is an NSF-funded geoinformatics project dedicated to the development of a network of data and tools for sedimentary geology and paleobiology. With its focus on Earth history and geologic time, CHRONOS is ideally positioned to provide opportunities for the geoscience and education communities for helping address widespread misunderstandings of the measurement of deep time, biological evolution, climate change and other topics relevant to science literacy. Still in its infancy, CHRONOS's E&O effort aims to partner specialists (stratigraphers, paleontologists), IT developers, and science educators to identify the “best practices” for applying web-based delivery of large datasets on Earth history for Standards-based Earth systems science education. On the long term, development of educator-friendly interfaces, intellectually accessible case studies, and other intended CHRONOS E&O initiatives may provide valuable models for future applications of geoinformatics data to inquiry-driven science education.

Initial projects include collaborations for the development of short vignettes on the nature of science, of a museum exhibit on geologic time, an online questionnaire on geologic time for 6-12 teachers and students, and access to several online resources on geologic time and stratigraphy, including the pdf file of a History of the Earth poster that includes the 2004 Global Time Scale and global paleogeographic maps for the Phanerozoic. CHRONOS E&O activities are coordinated through an CHRONOS's E&O advisory board consisting of representatives of national organizations and institutions (American Geological Institute, Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Paleontological Research Institute, University of California Museum of Paleontology), collaborative projects (DLESE, EARTHTIME, GEON, GeoSystems, Geowall, PaleoPortal, PaleoStrat), and science educators.