USGS Outreach and Education Activities

Each year USGS personnel in California visit with hundreds of school-age children and adults to provide information about water, geology and earth science. Our activities range from designing activities and coloring books for kindergarten classes to making presentations at conferences. We visit individual classrooms and participate in large festivals with thousands of students. We tailor our activities to be appropriate for different age groups and interests: coloring books and stories for children, activities for older children, and interactive multimedia presentations for high school students and adults.

If you are a school teacher, festival/conference organizer or civic club member/officer, we would be glad to come share the facts about water and earth science with your class, festival or civic group. We also have some material available for use by teachers and for adult reference and self study.

Please contact our outreach coordinator to schedule a visit or to inquire about the availability of educational materials.

Water Jeopardy

We have a fun twist to the television game Jeopardy, called Water Jeopardy that one of our sister Science Centers created. This version focuses on water related questions and is geared toward 5th and 6th graders. Students answer questions about water and the water cycle, and each right answer earns them the number of cups of water that matches the difficulty of the question. Large rain gauges help the teams keep score. The first team to fill their rain gauge wins the game.

Contact Information

Jim Nickles
U.S. Geological Survey
6000 J Street, Placer Hall
Sacramento CA 95819-6129
916-278-3016

For more educational information, visit The U.S. Geological Survey's Learning Web, a great site for both students and teachers.