EXPANDING THE REACH OF OUTREACH: EARTH SCIENCE EXPLORATION FOR K-12 STUDENTS

What is the most important part of a scientist’s job? We would argue it is effectively communicating discoveries to not only other scientists, but people with a variety of scientific backgrounds. After all, what is the value of knowledge if it is not shared? Designed to help geoscience graduate students cultivate this essential skill, the Chuck and Cathy Williamson Science Communication Fellowship pairs graduate students with a science teacher in middle and high schools in the Salt Lake City area. Traditionally, each Williamson Fellow works closely with this teacher and their students for a year to gain experience with translating complex scientific concepts to those who are just beginning their scientific journeys. While this partnership is invaluable to building meaningful relationships, this year we challenged ourselves to broaden the reach of this program while still maintaining involvement in our classrooms and the responsibilities of a graduate student. We designed a field trip that could be offered to multiple K-12 science classes in which students can visit the Geology & Geophysics building on campus to see and interact with various geologic models, activities, and researchers. The intent is to provide an opportunity to more students to learn what geoscientists do, while minimizing the workload for the graduate students and teachers involved. Similar tours have been conducted in our department but have not yet been systematically organized. We designed a suite of activities to align with the state Science and Engineering Education (SEEd) standards, including stream table and augmented reality sandbox demonstrations, mineralogy lab, fossil identification lab, lab and rock collection tours, and college campus tours. This way, teachers can select which activities best fit their time and the needs of their curriculum. This idea has been well received with participation from teachers from Salt Lake City, Jordan, Granite, and Alpine school districts. By the end of the semester, we will have engaged over 300 middle and high school students in geoscience exploration and perhaps inspired some to pursue their own science careers. Based on our prior experiences with classroom partnerships, we are optimistic this field trip will be impactful and rewarding for the graduate students, K-12 teachers, and visiting students.