The workshop will bring together scientists and informal educators to learn about EarthScope and similar efforts to study the dynamic landscape of the greater Yellowstone region. They will work together to develop interpretive programs focused on how society benefits from ongoing seismic, GPS, and other studies, and how such monitoring helps us appreciate the regions scenery as well as earthquake and volcanic hazards.
EarthScope Workshop for Interpretive Professionals in the Yellowstone-Snake River Plain-Teton Region
Teton Science School, Jackson, Wyoming,
September 9-12, 2010
What? EarthScope is a National Science Foundation program to study the structure and evolution of the North America continent by installing hundreds of seismometers, GPS stations, and other scientific instruments across the United States. This unprecedented Earth science undertaking provides a unique opportunity for students, teachers, and the public to participate in a national experiment going on in their own backyard. The greater Yellowstone region is a prime target area for EarthScope to investigate plate-tectonic processes that result in earthquakes, volcanism, and the dramatic topography that forms along an active hotspot track and continental rift zone. Interpretive professionals in state and national parks, forests, museums, and other sites have the unique opportunity to engage the public on the scientific and societal implications of exciting discoveries as they are being made. The four-day workshop features presentations by prominent scientists and and interpretive professionals to help convey the story of the breathtaking landscape and geological hazards of this geologically active region. Participants will learn how to use basic geologic and EarthScope information and science results, and will develop and present actual interpretive programs and exhibits during the workshop. Access to digitally-archived and real-time, web-accessible geologic information will provide a key source of information for such programs. The goal is to help interpreters create opportunities for the public to form their own intellectual and emotional connections to the dynamic landscape of the Yellowstone Hotspot, Snake River Plain, Tetons, and northern Basin and Range Province.
Sponsored by: EarthScope National Office at Oregon State University. EarthScope is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Who should attend? Park rangers and other informal educators from the National Park Service, U. S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, state parks, state geological surveys, community museums, and other individuals who engage the public on geological processes in the greater Yellowstone-Snake River Plain-Teton region of Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Utah. Participants do not have to be geologists or geophysicists, but they should have some knowledge of Earth science and experience incorporating geological information into interpretive programs or exhibits. We also welcome applications from K-12 Earth science teachers who interact with interpretive specialists in parks or museums, as well as from college faculty teaching geology field camps or informal education programs in the region.
Funding: Participants or their organizations provide travel costs to and from the workshop. The NSF EarthScope science program, through the EarthScope National Office (ESNO) provides food, lodging, materials, and field trip travel while at the workshop. CDs, printed handouts, and other workshop materials will be provided by ESNO at no cost to participants.
Lodging: Rooms have been reserved at the Jackson, Wyoming Campus of the Teton Science School, where most of the workshop will be held. The EarthScope National Office will pay double occupancy rates for participants. Single rooms are available for participants who wish to pay ½ of the single room cost (the ESNO will pay the other half).
Commitment: Participants and instructors must commit to all four days of the workshop (from 1:00 PM Thursday, Sept. 9 to 12:00 Noon Sunday, Sept. 12). Each participant and their supervisor must commit to providing follow-up training to their staff members on how EarthScope data, scientific results, and societal implications can be incorporated into interpretive programs and exhibits at their site.
Instructors:
- Bob Lillie (Professor of Geology at Oregon State Univ, Certified Interpretive Trainer, and EarthScope Education/Outreach Manager)
- Bob Smith (Prof of Geophysics at the Univ of Utah, livelong Yellowstone-Teton researcher, and EarthScope Distinguished Lecturer)
- Henry Heasler (Geologist at Yellowstone National Park)
- Mike Jackson (Scientist with UNAVCO, Inc. and Director of the Plate Boundary Observatory)
- David James (Senior Staff Scientist, Carnegie Institution, and expert on USArray investigations of the Yellowstone hotspot track)
- Cheryl Jaworowski (Geologist at Yellowstone National Park)
- Patrick McQuillan (Education and Outreach Specialist, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology)
- Shelley Olds (Science Education Specialist at UNAVCO, Inc.)
- Doug Owen (Park Geologist & Education Specialist at Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve)
- Suzette J. Payne (Seismologist at the Idaho National Laboratory)
- Christine Puskas (Post Doctoral Fellow, University of Utah and specialist on GPS and ground deformation in the Yellowstone region)
- Carolyn Richard (Chief of Visitor Services and Interpretation at Grand Teton National Park)
- John Shervais (Professor and Head, Department of Geology at Utah State University)