HANDS-ON GEODESY: ENGAGING THE PUBLIC AND FOSTERING INTERN PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

UNAVCO, a university-governed consortium that enables geodetic research and education, has multiple geodesy-focused hands-on activities and materials available for use in classrooms and informal outreach events. These various activities demonstrate Earth processes studied using geodesy, including: isostasy and isostatic rebound due to changing glaciers, strain accumulation in the crust from convergent boundaries, volcanic hazard monitoring with GPS, the relationship between groundwater levels and earthquakes, and tsunami early warning systems. The glacier activity, the demo to be presented, invites visitors to explore how the building and melting of glaciers affects topography, and to discover how scientists can remotely monitor the state of glaciers and ice sheets using GPS. Through prompting questions and conversation, we invite activity participants to make observations (e.g., how is the “ice sheet” deforming the ground?), make hypotheses (e.g., what will happen to the ground when the “ice sheet” melts?), design experiments (e.g., where would you place GPS monuments to study this ground motion?), and draw conclusions from real GPS data we use to supplement the demo. This demonstration leads to conversations about how both water level and land elevation changes affect sea level, the importance of understanding these changes, and the impact they have on coastal communities.

We use hands-on activities primarily in three venues: teacher professional development workshops, classroom visits, and, most commonly, in informal outreach events, including science festivals such as the USA Science & Engineering Festival in Washington, D.C. These activities are also the centerpiece for the UNAVCO Portal to the Public Program, a communications professional development workshop offered to summer interns in two of UNAVCO’s three summer internship programs. During this program, interns present these activities to the public at a local farmers market to practice and hone communications skills. The activities are conducive to interacting with a wide range of ages and backgrounds, once a presenter understands how to read and assess prior knowledge and interest level of their audience. Thus, these hands-on activities are simple yet engaging ways to communicate geodesy and its applications to the public.