4 Extending Geological Education beyond the Academy

Sunday, 20 March 2011
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Monongahela

USING INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS TO REACH A BROADER AUDIENCE WITH GEOSCIENCE INFORMATION

Paper number: 4-9
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:15 AM

Authors

Abstract

As public concern with human impacts on the Earth environment broadens, opportunities to reach a wider audience with the geoscience perspective broaden as well. In higher education, courses ranging from ecocriticism to environmental ethics are engaging in discussion on topics familiar to geoscientists. In state capitols, legislators debate the merits of carbon sequestration, hazard mitigation, and resource exploitation. In community meeting rooms, concerned citizens discuss water quality, natural hazards, and land use plans. Rather than bemoan their lack of scientific understanding, geoscientists need to collaborate with these groups and use the creative process to develop appropriate solutions to the problems facing society.

Each time academics, politicians, and citizens engage with issues containing a geoscience component, an opportunity for collaboration exists. In higher education, we must engage our colleagues with offers to develop collaborative research projects and present the geoscience perspective in the classroom. In the political realm, we must develop relationships that lead to opportunities to provide unbiased, professional critiques of the impacts of proposed legislation. With respect to advocacy groups, we must first listen and then offer clear interpretations of scientific materials that are often opaque. The key to success in each of these areas is collaboration based on affinity in interest and concern. Examples will be presented in each of these areas highlighting affinities that were identified and presentational styles that were used.