K-12 & Public Outreach

Jackson School outreach seeks to inspire the next generation of geoscience professionals and enhance the communication of science to the public. Outreach from the school takes many forms.

GeoFORCE Texas offers week-long summer academies and two-day seminars to promising high school students from the predominantly Hispanic region of South Texas. Students visit The University of Texas at Austin, the Grand Canyon, USGS headquarters in Virginia, and other locations meant to inspire their interest in higher education and the geosciences. The program, launched with corporate support in 2005, aims to enroll 1,100 students by the summer of 2009.

The school’s units manage a range of additional K–12 activities. The Bureau leads the state’s Earth Science Week and works with Gulf Coast students through the Texas High School Coastal Monitoring Program. The Institute conducts several programs for K–12 teachers—summer field projects, a professional development program, and an NSF-sponsored program partnering teachers with graduate students. Closing the circle, the Department offers an undergraduate major that prepares students to become public school science teachers.

Other ongoing projects strive to make the geosciences more accessible and relevant to the public through radio, television, museum exhibits, and online video.

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