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Educators seek to develop 21st century skills in the classroom by incorporating educational materials other than textbooks into their lessons, such as digitally available activities, videos, and vi...

Geoscience instructors and textbooks rely on analogy for teaching students a wide range of content, from the most basic concepts to highly complicated systems. The goal of this paper is to connect ...

The geosciences have an important role to play in addressing whether humans can live sustainably on Earth. From water to energy, from climate change to natural hazards, geoscience is central to solving a wide range of problems.

Producing a workforce that will be successful in meeting global environmental and resource challenges requires that we attract diverse students into the geosciences, support them fully in our programs, and assist them as they move into the profession. However, geoscience has the lowest ethnic and racial diversity of any of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (National Science Foundation (NSF), “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/wmpd/2013/start.cfm) and is often viewed as a difficult choice for students with physical disabilities.

As the focus on developing our nation's scientific workforce intensifies [National Academy of Sciences, 2007], more geoscience departments are recognizing teacher preparation as an integral part of their work. Skilled geoscience teachers can excite and engage K–12 students in the geosciences, present geoscience as a rewarding career path, and ultimately contribute to a better understanding of key geoscience problems among the public. Our ability to achieve these goals starts with the quality of our teacher education programs.

Teaching quantitative skills is one of the most challenging and important aspects of teaching geoscience. Quantitative skills are essential for Earth science students and citizens alike, and these skills have been deemed a critical goal for U.S. undergraduate education [National Science Foundation, 1996]. Public policy decisions increasingly are made and explained to the public based on data presentation, numerical models, statistics, and numbers. Introductory Earth sciences are among the primary courses chosen by nonscience students to fulfill science requirements and thus provide an important vehicle for teaching these essential skills. Courses in the geoscience major are equally important in introducing students to the quantitative analysis that is increasingly central to the discipline. It is therefore essential that adequate training be provided to Earth science majors and nonmajors in quantitative techniques ranging from simple graph and data interpretation to more sophisticated techniques such as numerical modeling.

Students are key to the future of the Earth and space sciences and to the vitality of our global AGU community. More than 7300 students are now members of the Union (17% of the total membership); of these, 30% live outside the U.S. Equally important, student attendance at AGU's major meetings has been steadily climbing. In 2004, a remarkable 25% of the registrants for major AGU meetings were students. An increasing number of qualified students apply for travel grants to attend these meetings. Yet, only 5% (see Figure 1) receive these modest grants of $300–$650 because Union resources have not kept pace with demand. More students need financial aid, and our charge is to “find” the funds to help them.