THE WAY FORWARD IN GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION: ONE MAN'S PERSPECTIVE

Recruiting and retaining students in our field is a task like many others—too many variables, not enough funding, too few stakeholders etc.—but a quote from Will Rogers still may be an appropriate mantra: “Everyone says something must be done, and this time it looks like it might be us.” So what does that mean? Capture the imagination of those fertile minds with adventurous story-telling at every opportunity. And if we have an opportunity to interface with the media make sure that when “ . . . the findings of a scientist” shows up in print, scientist is replaced by “geophysicist so and so, or volcanologist etc.” Minds make connections that these are real people with real jobs and not an unknown elite corps of scientists. My teaching experience says do this: convey the unqualified excitement and passion we have about our field, and why we look forward to going to work each day; find out “what comes next”— the thrill of discovery.

Discovery is exciting, and the Geosciences have much to discover. There is no end to the questions that can be asked, or the need to answer them. Here are a few examples:

1. What do we really know about the earth’s interior? What tools discovered and undiscovered will enable us to find out more? 2. How do geologic variables interact with human activities? 3. Most natural resources are non-renewable on human time scales—how will we meet the needs of future generations? 4. We use surface water and groundwater faster than they are replenished. 5. We extract surface resources with reclamation in mind—how do we reinforce that trend. 6. The land base is assaulted by development in the midst of countless geologic hazards.

Non-academic career paths within academia, simply put, play an important and largely irreplaceable role not only within the college departmental setting, but as a user-friendly resource for governmental agencies and to industry. I cite an example at Western Washington University, Bellingham. Make sure these people feel like they are part of the deal—invite them to section meetings, ask them to give papers and presentations. The session poses a question on the ways forward. The speaker relates several experiences from industry which illustrate the common obstacles to progressive change, and a short comment on methods of implementing ways forward that proved successful.