HR: 0800h
AN: ED11E-1129    [Abstracts]
TI: Education and Outreach for EarthScope's USArray
AU: * Levy, G
EM: levy@iris.edu
AF: IRIS Consortium, 1200 New York Ave. NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005 United States
AU: Taber, J
EM: taber@iris.edu
AF: IRIS Consortium, 1200 New York Ave. NW Suite 800, Washington, DC 20005 United States
AB: Maintaining public interest throughout the 10-year EarthScope project is a challenge and will require an ongoing community-based effort within a national support structure. The initial education and outreach effort of the USArray portion of the EarthScope project involves siting outreach that assists in finding potential sites and promoting the value of hosting a seismograph. This aspect of the program will continue as the Transportable Array (TA) moves across the US. As more of the TA is installed, the primary focus will shift to using the educational hook that there will be an EarthScope seismograph in almost every county of the US at some point in the next 10 years. The program will be closely linked to the efforts of EarthScope Education and Outreach, and other EarthScope partners such as UNAVCO. In the long term, the program will provide a way for local communities to stay engaged after the TA moves to the next region. IRIS, as a national consortium of universities, is well placed to engage groups via local connections in multiple regions. An example of university involvement is a small group of students from Oregon State University who spent the summer finding sites for USArray. Not only did they promote the project within the community, but by working with professional permitters and scientists, the students got a rare opportunity to get practical experience doing real science. At Arizona State University (ASU) two students are currently working on finding sites across Arizona. ASU also works closely with Native American communities to promote EarthScope siting and educational activities within an appropriate cultural context. Universities are helping to develop college and secondary school GIS-related exercises associated with the process of siting. Ongoing siting outreach activities have both a community and broad focus. When schools are engaged as a TA station host, students have access to "their" TA station data via the online IRIS Data Management System, using tools developed for general audiences by University of South Carolina (Global Earthquake Explorer and Rapid Earthquake Viewer). IRIS provides an inexpensive educational seismometer and associated educational material to the school to use both during and after the TA deployment. Real time seismology and other EarthScope information will be provided to a wide audience through the "Museum Lite" display. It is based on the online Seismic Monitor and the IRIS/USGS large-scale earthquake displays in use in major US museums. Customized implementations of the display at small museums, schools, and visitor centers can precede the Transportable Array to generate public interest, provide local information while the array is in place, and act as part of the USArray legacy.
UR: http://www.iris.edu/USArray/outreach.htm
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005