NCED & The Public: Engaging Audiences
How Does NCED Education work? - The NCED Education Initiative’s goal is to present Earth-surface dynamics to a broad spectrum of learners - from K-12, undergraduate and graduate students, to the general public. The NCED approach to public education utilizes strong collaboration between its researchers and education staff to create target education experiences. These targeted experiences include science museum exhibits for the general public, downloadable 3D maps for use in K-12 classrooms, graduate-level stream restoration certificates, and more. Strong collaborations and partnerships with organizations like the Science Museum of Minnesota are crucial to spreading NCED’s legacy as a leader in Earth-surface research. Listed below are a few of the programs NCED has been closely involved with.
Collaboration with Educational Partners - NCED works closely with many museums to provide content and technology to help teach the public about Earth's dynamic surface. Our strong connection with the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) has reached over 1,272,000 people around the world. Currently, the SMM is host to the NSF-funded Future Earth Exhibit, and the NCED-developed Big Back Yard (BBY). Past collaborations with the SMM include the Water Exhibit and videos developed for the Science on a Sphere project. The BBY has been visited by more than a million people, while the Water Exhibit has been to more than a half dozen foreign science museums including locations in Canada, the UK, the Netherlands and Abu Dhabi.
More details on specific NCED Education Initiatives and partnerships can be found in the education section of the NCED Annual Report.
NCED & Social Media: Education and Outreach -NCED embraces social media as a way to reach broader audiences, including the general public, educators, students or potential Earth-science collaborators. NCED uses its Facebook page to generate interest in current events for NCED, the University of Minnesota, and Earth Science at large. NCED's Twitter feed (@stcNCED) provides instant communication with our followers, as well as relationship-building with other organizations through re-tweeting. On the NCED Youtube page, videos produced internally and in collaboration are hosted for public viewing. NCED also actively engages audiences through local opportunites like our monthly Sip of Science. Click here to get involved.
Teacher Material:
- Explore the 3D maps and other teaching resources available for teachers.
- Check out our NCED YouTube videos.
- Join the Partnership for River Restoration and Science in the Upper Midwest.
- Visit the Science Museum of Minnesota (SMM) to experience NCED/SMM exhibits (Big Back Yard, Science on a Sphere, Rain Table).
- Join the Geoscience Alliance to help broaden the participation of Native Americans in the geosciences.
- Schedule a tour of the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory (SAFL), NCED's headquarters (tours available for groups of teachers and for teachers of undergraduate and graduate students).
- Visit Xcel Energy Water Power Park to see the SAFL/NCED Outdoor StreamLab.
- Visit NCED's data repository.
- Promote STEM teaching through showing classroom experiments and demos at SERC - Science Education Resource Center at Carleton College