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.
Thank you Summer 2012 Interns!
Summer is coming to a close, and so is the USGS Summer Internship Program. The goal of the program is to enhance awareness and appreciation of science and encourage students to consider the sciences as a career path. This year, CAWSC benefited from the help of two interns in Sacramento, Ralph Relador and Cheyanne Harris, and two interns in San Diego, Jose Dominguez and Levi Duerte.
The high school students were paired with scientists, and worked full-time for eight weeks on specific projects. Interns also had the opportunity to go out to the field and see firsthand how their projects relate to California water issues.
Meet the Interns:
Ralph currently attends Natomas Charter School. Ralph worked with Diane Rewis and Loren Metzger, primarily for the USGS Water Use program gathering water-use data from websites, creating spreadsheets, graphing data, and comparing it to past water-use compilations.
Cheyanne attends Pleasant Grove High School and worked with Donna Knifong. She primarily focused on projects involving Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Jose is currently a senior at Point Loma High School, and worked with Michael Land and David O’Leary. He focused on creating new well sites, inputting well-site data into GWSI, and gathering other data to assist with report writing.
Leviathan Duerte is a senior at Point Loma High School, and worked with Greg Mendez. He primarily entered well data into GWSI and created spreadsheets from the information.
The internship program allows each Projects office to hire two high school interns for the summer. Previous interns have gone on to study science at prestigious universities. Summer 2011 intern, Teresa Ramos, continues to work at CAWSC and received the Gates Millennium Scholarship, which will pay her tuition throughout her undergraduate career.
To learn more about the Summer Internship Program, contact Dr. Tracy Nishikawa at 619-225-6148, or Laurel Rogers at 619-225-6104
Basic Information about Water
- Water Science for Schools
- The Water Cycle
- Hydrology Primer
- Ground Water
- Rain: A Water Resource
- Aquifer Basics
- Water Education Posters
- Glossaries of water terms
Other Sources of Information
- Earth Science Information Center - Ask USGS
- The USGS and Science Education
- USGS Learning Web
- USGS Publications and Data Products
- USGS Information Products about Mapping and related subjects
- USGS Biological Resources Features
- Science in your State
Contact Information
Laurel Rogers
U.S. Geological Survey
4165 Spruance Road, Suite 200
San Diego, CA 92101
619-225-6104
For more educational information, visit The U.S. Geological Survey's Learning Web, a great site for both students and teachers.
