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GSA-NESTA 2019 GeoTeach Workshop


The Geological Society of America (GSA) held its annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona in September. Join us on Sunday, September 22, for the first GSA-NESTA GeoTeach workshop. Hear from a motivating speaker, engage in databased activities, collect NGSS-congruent resources for teaching Earth science standards during our Share-a-Thon, and participate in meeting activities, such as perusing the Exhibit Hall. Bring a laptop to fully participate in the workshop. Lunch will be provided by GSA. Internet access is provided by Arizona State University's (ASU's) School of Earth and Space Exploration, Infiniscope project.

Geoscience in Action! Workshop Schedule

Location: Sheraton Phoenix Downtown, Valley of the Sun A/B
340 N. 3rd Street | Phoenix, AZ 85004

8:00 AM to 8:10 AM
Welcome from GSA: Matt Dawson, GSA Education Programs Manager

8:10 AM to 8:20 AM
Welcome from NESTA & Overview of the day: Dr. Carla McAuliffe, Executive Director, NESTA

8:20 AM to 8:30 AM
Logistics: Aida Awad, K-12 Co-Chair of GSA Planning Committee

8:30 AM to 9:30 AM
Invited Speaker: Dr. Lindy Elkins-TantonThree Ideas

  In January 2017 NASA selected the Psyche mission as the 14th in its Discovery series. Here I'll discuss this mission, with its science objectives, planning process, progress to date, and what we know about that distant metallic asteroid (16) Psyche. The 2019 American Geosciences Institute Earth Science Week theme that "Geoscience is for everyone" resonates strongly for me. My career path has been non-traditional, and throughout, I've been searching for ways to build better teams, to create inclusive communities, and to share the wonders of the natural world. Along with the Psyche story, I'll share some thoughts on what we can all do as leaders to make a better world.

Dr. Lindy Elkins-Tanton is the Principal Investigator (lead) of the NASA Psyche mission, Director of the Interplanetary Initiative at ASU, and co-founder of Beagle Learning, a tech company training and measuring collaborative problem-solving and critical thinking. Her research concerns terrestrial planetary formation and evolution, and she promotes and practices inquiry and exploration learning. Her mission is to create a generation of problem-solvers. Dr. Elkins-Tanton received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from MIT. She was a researcher at Brown University, faculty at MIT, and a director at the Carnegie Institution for Science before moving to the directorships at Arizona State University.

Dr. Elkins-Tanton has led four field expeditions in Siberia. She is a two-time National Academy of Sciences Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow and served on the Planetary Decadal Survey Mars panel, and the Mars 2020 Rover Science Definition Team, and now serves on the Europa Clipper Standing Review Board. In 2010 she was awarded the Explorers Club Lowell Thomas prize. Asteroid (8252) Elkins-Tanton is named for her. In 2013 she was named the Astor Fellow at Oxford University. She published the book Earth, co-authored with Jeffrey Cohen, in 2017. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union, and of the American Mineralogical Society, and in 2018 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

9:30 AM to 9:45 AM
BREAK

9:45 AM to 11:15 AM
Talk: Dr. Jim BellUsing Rovers to Search for Life on Mars

 Dr. Bell will talk about his work on Spirit, Opportunity, and Curiosity leading up to the Mars 2020 rover's mission in the search for life.

Dr. Jim Bell is a professor in the School of Earth & Space Exploration at Arizona State University, and President of The Planetary Society. He is an active astronomer and planetary scientist who has been involved in solar system exploration using the Hubble Space Telescope, Mars rovers, the Voyager missions, and orbiters sent to Mars, the Moon, and several asteroids. His research focuses on the use of remote sensing imaging and spectroscopy to assess the geology, composition, and mineralogy of the surfaces of planets, moons, asteroids, and comets. Dr. Bell is also an author of popular science books related to space exploration, including Postcards from Mars, The Space Book, The Interstellar Age, The Ultimate Interplanetary Travel Guide, and The Earth Book. He has received the American Astronomical Society's Carl Sagan Medal for public communication in science, and has a main belt asteroid named after him – 8146 jimbell.

Workshop: Jessica SwannStories in Rock: The Search for Life, Extinctions, and Other Mysteries

 Travel back in geologic time to explore major historical events such as asteroid impacts, mass extinctions, and climate change of Earth to understand the search for life among other planets in the universe.

Jessica Swann is a learning designer and community coordinator for ASU's Center for Education Through eXploration (ETX) on a NASA Exploration Connection grant. Jessica spent 10 years as a science educator teaching high school earth and space sciences, biology and introductory science courses. Additionally, she taught geology through an online university. She has been working under NASA education programming since 2010 and designing curriculum since 2002. Her passion is developing science literacy through her focus on bringing high-quality, relevant, engaging, NGSS-related curriculum and training to formal and informal educators. Jessica earned her B.S. in Science Education at Wright State University and M. Ed in Educational Technology at Grand Canyon University.

11:15 AM to 12:00 PM
LUNCH, provided by GSA

12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Share-a-Thon

1:00 PM to 1:15 PM
BREAK

1:15 AM to 2:45 PM
Talk and Workshop: LuAnn DahlmanPlanning for the Future: Making Decisions based on Climate Projections

 Climate projections—results from experiments run on global climate models—represent science's best efforts to predict future climate conditions. Though projections span a range of potential conditions, people are using them to make decisions about climate adaptation and resource management today. You will learn how global climate models and downscaling techniques yield county-scale projections for the coming decades, and about some of the strengths and limitations of climate projections. You will use the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit's Climate Explorer to access and interpret climate projections, and then use the information in a group activity to explore a real world management decision.

LuAnn Dahlman is a science writer and communication specialist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Climate Program Office. She leads the Maps & Data team for Climate.gov, serves as a Co-Managing Editor for the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, and fulfills the role of User Advocate on the Climate Explorer team.

2:45 PM to 3:00 PM
Closing Comments and End of Workshop Survey

3:00 PM to 7:00 PM
Optional Exhibit Hall Viewing – Phoenix Convention Center, Exhibition Hall C/D/E on the 300 level of the North Building
Come by the NAGT-NESTA Booth - #107

7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Optional Educator Reception – Copper Blues Rock Pub & Kitchen, 50 W Jefferson St, Phoenix, AZ 85003


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