Implementing the NSF Geosciences Education Vision: A University Perspective

Geosciences Education: A Recommended Strategy (NSF97-171) is a report which laid out an ambitious vision for promoting education and public outreach (EPO) activities in the Earth sciences. A key to making this vision a reality is bringing members of the academic research community more fully into the EPO domain. Many university scientists enthusiastically embrace EPO goals and have taken steps to participate personally in a broad spectrum of EPO activities, ranging from working with K-12 teachers to briefing Congress. Other researchers in academia, however, have encountered severe barriers to entering the EPO world, including peer disapproval and administrative discouragement at their universities. A common experience for both researchers and educators is to find that the two communities are separated by a cultural chasm, with naivete and distrust in evidence on both sides. This talk draws on the personal experience of the author, a professor at a research university who is himself heavily involved in EPO, and who chaired the working group that wrote the NSF report. >http://www.geo.nsf.gov/adgeo/geoedu/97_171.htm</a>