Earth Science Week: the Big Ideas videos
Today marks the end of this year’s Earth Science Week.
In the past, I have [summarised and discussed](https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2010/10/earth-
science-week-and-earth-science-literacy.html) the “Big Ideas” that have been
put together by the Earth Science Literacy Initiative;
these are excellent, fundamental, and of global relevance, so I will highlight
them again. Furthermore, they are now supported by a series of award-winning
videos, directly downloadable as WMV files, and available on YouTube,
so here are the direct links:
VIDEOS (WITHIN YOUTUBE):
Big Idea 2. Earth is 4.6 billion years > old.
Big Idea 3. Earth is a complex system of interacting rock, water, air, and > life.
Big Idea 4. Earth is continuously > changing.
Big Idea 5. Earth is the water > planet.
Big Idea 6. Life evolves on a dynamic Earth and continuously modifies > Earth.
Big Idea 7. Humans depend on Earth for > resources.
You will notice that each of the videos shows the number of times it has been
accessed – I’m not sure how accurate these numbers are, but they are
depressing. It’s not that I would expect such videos to go viral, but, for
example, “Earth continually changes” has been viewed only a thousand times in
less than a year. The entire Earth Science Week and Literacy Initiative sites
provide an extraordinary wealth of superbly prepared and accessible resources
and materials, but I have to wonder if there aren’t innovative ways of
broadcasting this value more widely.
Here’s an extract from this month’s Earth Science Week
Update:
AGI now offers award-winning videos and other electronic resources to help
students, educators, and others explore the “big ideas” of Earth science
during Earth Science Week 2012 (October 14-20) and all year long. AGI’s Big
Ideas videos recently won three prestigious awards: Digital Video (DV)
Winner in Education, DV Winner in Nature/Wildlife, and Videographer Award of
Excellence.Big Ideas videos are brief video clips that bring to life the big ideas of
Earth science - the nine core concepts that everyone should know. The Earth
Science Literacy Initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, has
codified these underlying understandings of Earth science which form the
basis of the Big Ideas videos.View the Big Ideas videos on YouTube
(http://www.youtube.com/AGIeducation)
or TeacherTube
(http://teachertube.com/view_channel.php?user=AGIEducation).
The Earth Science Week web site provides related resources. Educators can
find dozens of classroom activities to help students build understanding of
the “big ideas” online
(http://www.earthsciweek.org/forteachers/bigideas/main.html).
Oh, and since yesterday – a fact perhaps not widely known - was Geologic Map
Day, here’s my celebratory contribution. Courtesy of the wonderful Geoscience Portal
via which the Australian Government links geoscience data for the entire
country, it’s part of the geologic map around Alice Springs, scene of my
travels earlier this year. For me, it’s not only an illustration of the beauty
of a geologic map, but it reverberates with ancient and complex geological
stories – and the amount of human effort, thinking, and ingenuity it took to
tell them, exactly what Earth Science Week is designed to celebrate.
Comments
Richard Bready (2012-10-22):
Great map, thanks. It resembles stained tissue slices: patterns of growth by interpenetration, concentration gradients? Biomedical science has no problem holding public interest, but the explorers who gathered field observations into geology’s Big Ideas don’t offer stories of miracle cures or forensic solutions suitable for TV drama. Simon Winchester did try, with William Smith. Good for the organizers of Geological Map Day. You may enjoy this headline:
http://mtstandard.com/entertainment/tgif/hug-a-geologist-it-s-geologic-map-day/article_bd2d4d36-19c6-11e2-bad8-001a4bcf887a.html
A problem with visibility is that schools don’t teach much earth science. One would like to see teachers showing these videos in classrooms.
Shawntisdell (2012-12-01):
I just put some PR out on my personal Facebook site praising the video series. I have only seen the first video, but recognize that it is very well done.
There is so much informational overload, so much social networking fill of most extra time, that science of nearly any type becomes a niche. For a moment, if something gets the major attention of people, some focus will change to the physical world, for a little while… I also think there is a growing distrust, or fear being cultivated, at least in the US, starting with specific areas of science-evolution and climatology, for example of which is being extrapolated to other areas.
Originally published at: https://throughthesandglass.typepad.com/through_the_sandglass/2012/10/earth-science-week-the-big-ideas-videos.html
Discussion (2)
http://mtstandard.com/entertainment/tgif/hug-a-geologist-it-s-geologic-map-day/article_bd2d4d36-19c6-11e2-bad8-001a4bcf887a.html
A problem with visibility is that schools don't teach much earth science. One would like to see teachers showing these videos in classrooms.
There is so much informational overload, so much social networking fill of most extra time, that science of nearly any type becomes a niche. For a moment, if something gets the major attention of people, some focus will change to the physical world, for a little while... I also think there is a growing distrust, or fear being cultivated, at least in the US, starting with specific areas of science-evolution and climatology, for example of which is being extrapolated to other areas.
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