The 9^th grade Summer Academy is where students are first introduced to geology as part of their GeoFORCE Texas adventure. The trip focuses on coastal processes and sedimentary environments.

We begin in central Texas to take a look at river processes in places like McKinney Falls State Park. After taking a bus to the Texas Coast, students begin their study of the geology of coastal environments. The trip includes time at Texas beaches measuring the beach profile, trenching to investigate different layers of sediment and studying longshore drift. Students also visit the Texas State Aquarium and may take a trip on a scientific research vessel. Returning home, students will be able to use their geologic knowledge and the confidence they have gained on this field trip as incoming high school freshman.

This academy is the second year of the program.  Students have their freshman year of high school under their belt and are ready to open their eyes to the geology of the Southwest United States. Students discuss deep geologic time and how we see that in sedimentary rocks.

The group will fly into Las Vegas, Nevada and head to Utah, crossing into Arizona briefly on the way, meaning that students will travel to four states in a few hours. On the trip, students encounter some of the most spectacular scenery of the United States and learn about the rocks and the processes that created them over millions of years. The group visit Zion National Park, Glen Canyon Dam, and Grand Canyon National Park. The students get the opportunity to take a gentle raft ride down the Colorado River and an awesome hike in the Grand Canyon on the South Kaibab Trail. The trip builds on the Coastal Texas experience by introducing a wider variety of sedimentary rocks, older rocks, and discussions of deep geologic time.

The 11th grade Summer Academy takes GeoFORCE rising juniors on a spectacular geologic journey to the Pacific Northwest. This trip adds igneous rocks, geologic hazards, and active tectonic processes to the students’ growing geologic knowledge.

In the previous two academies, students studied carbonate rocks and coastal processes in Texas (year 1) and ancient sedimentary rocks in Arizona (year 2). In year 3, they travel to an active plate boundary to see how volcanoes and mountain ranges are formed and to compare higher-energy coastal processes with those seen on their first trip. Students will learn what causes earthquakes and will visit several active volcanoes, walk across recent lava flows, and traverse the heart of the Cascades along Lewis and Clark’s historic route to the Pacific Ocean.

The 12th grade Summer Academy completes the fixed GeoFORCE adventure. After 4 summer academies, students have learned about the basic principles of geology and are ready to apply them in a more complex environment, a week-long research project!

The final trip brings the students back to Texas, where they stay at the University of Texas at Austin dormitory and partner with geoscience faculty and research scientists from the Jackson School of Geosciences in a research project. These research projects encourage students to connect the knowledge they’ve learned throughout their summers with the GeoFORCE program to real world problems. Each project is part of current ongoing work being conducted by Jackson School professors.

At the end of the week, students present their research at the GeoFORCE Symposium where students, research scientists, GeoFORCE staff, and parents meet and listen to the presentations created by each student group. The top students are then given the chance to join GeoFORCE in December and attend the American Geophysical Union (AGU) national conference. This conference brings together leaders in geology and allows our students to present at the AGU Bright STaRS session.