Educational Outreach
The Florida Geological Survey maintains an
active Education and Outreach Program in keeping
with
its mission to collect, interpret, and provide objective quality
geologic information about Florida. Florida’s geology is unique; topics
that may be explored from this portal provide an exciting
introduction to our fascinating and fragile natural heritage.
Videos available to teachers make the sometimes unusual and often
wonderful world of Florida geology easily accessible to
students. In addition, the FGS hosts an annual Open House in
celebration of Earth Science Week that features tours of our
facility and interactive earth science activities for students
from ages K-12. Home schooling parents and their children are
our special guests at this event. The FGS also sends geologists
to speak to local schools on a staff available basis. See
Resources for Teachers.
Educational Outreach Events:
-
Earth Science Week, October 14th-20th, 2012 - will be a national event sponsored by the American Geological Institute (AGI).
This year’s theme is “Discovering Careers in Earth
Sciences”.
The Florida Geological Survey
will host an open house on Friday, October 19th, 2012, from 9AM-3PM,
corresponding to national Geologic Map Day. The theme
this year is Discovering Careers in the Earth Sciences, and
what better place to learn about that than at FGS where we
collect, interpret and provide objective quality geologic
information about Florida. On site we will have
fossil displays, and microscopes set up with sand, rocks and
other specimens to view, in addition to our scavenger hunt using our
hallway and lobby displays. For the very young we will
have coloring sheets and play doh to “make
fossils”…essentially making imprints of shells.
Tours
of the Antarctic Research Facility will also be available
with advance registration; tours will accommodate 16 people
each and will be at 10am, 1pm and 3pm. For information
and reservations please contact Christopher
Williams (Christopher.P.Williams@dep.state.fl.us),
850-617-0317.
Scout night, an event designed to assist local Webelos
Scouts obtain their geology badge, will be held at 6:00 -
8:00PM Wednesday and Thursday evenings, October 17th and 18th.
Please contact Christopher Williams (above) for information and to
reserve slots for your group.
On Saturday, October 20th, we will offer a 9am-about noon geologic tour at Apalachicola National Forest, Leon Sinks Geological Area. This is located southwest of Tallahassee off US 319 near the Leon-Wakulla County boundary. The parking fee has been waived for tour attendees.
Advance reservations are required; please contact Christopher Williams (above).
The address for the Florida Geological Survey
(FGS) is 903 West Tennessee Street, on the FSU campus in
Tallahassee. We are at the SW corner of Tennessee
and Woodward. Parking can be a bit of a challenge. We
recommend either street parking (usually meters) north of
Tennessee Street, near us, or the parking lot behind the St.
Thomas More Co-Cathedral which is at the NE corner of
Tennessee and Woodward. This lot is best reached from Dewey
Street and turning west onto Virginia Street and proceeding
all the way to the end of the road. Parking at this lot is
$3 and it takes $0.25, $1 or $5.
Past Events
- Earth Day 2012
-
Earth Day at the Capitol 2012,
an event produced by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of
Environmental Education, took place at the Capitol Courtyard
in Tallahassee on April 20, 2012. Earth
Day attendees included a mixed audience of elementary,
middle and high school students and community members. The Florida Geological Survey
participated with a table and and geology education poster
sets for classroom
teachers.
- Earth Science Week 2011
- was a national event sponsored by the American
Geological Institute (AGI). See Florida Governor Scott's Earth Science
Week Proclamation
here. This year’s theme was “Our Ever-Changing
Earth” and engaged the public and students to learn about the natural
processes that shape our planet over time. The event “encouraged people
everywhere to explore the natural world and learn about the
geosciences”. In celebration of Earth Science Week (ESW), the Florida
Geological Survey held its annual Open House on Wednesday,
October 12th from 10:00 am until 4:00 pm at the Gunter
Building. The Antarctic Marine Geology Research
Facility (AMGRF) at Florida State University co-hosted the event with
tours of its core research and storage facilities.
The FGS open house featured a drill rig in our front yard with core
samples and a geologist to explain both the workings of
the rig and to answer questions about the cores.
Core samples are our best source of information
on the rocks beneath our feet, and provide valuable
information about the processes that formed Florida and
the value of these rocks today as source rocks for
springs, groundwater supply and as industrial materials
that we use almost daily. FGS geologists demonstrated the use of our ground-penetrating radar
unit, which is another way we can investigate the
shallow subsurface. A
station was set up with interesting fossils from Florida to
coincide with National Fossil Day. Visitors were
able to use microscopes and
samples to get a detailed look at
the rocks from the subsurface of Florida. The Florida
Department of Environmental Protection's (FDEP) Office of
Environmental Education participated with an activity
highlighting chemical and physical weathering and
aquifer formation. FDEP "Easy as One" program staff also joined us to
discuss how conservation and stewardship of resources is
also a key component in earth science education. There
were also demonstrations and question and answer
sessions with
our GIS specialists. For our youngest guests
the FGS provided coloring sheets highlighting prehistoric life
in Florida and shells and Play Dough for experimentation
in one way fossils are formed.
We continued our tradition of
Scout Night at 6:00
pm on Wednesday evening, October 12th with an event that
assists local Webelos Scouts in obtaining their geology badge.
The final event for ESW was
a tour of the Leon Sinks Geological Area in the
Apalachicola National Forest southwest of Tallahassee at
9 am Saturday, October 15th.
Pages of interest to Teachers and Students:
- Geologic Topics:
Portal to several pages on Florida Geology. The same pages
are also listed below-
Videos available for Teachers :
- Florida
Geology Unearthed : Available in DVD and VHS.
- Florida's Aquifer Adventure : Available in DVD and VHS.
A 20 minute film which describes Florida's aquifer systems,
springs, caves and environmental issues. Contact
the FGS for
ordering information.
Publications:
- Many of the FGS publications can be useful to both
students and teachers and can be viewed online. Please see
our
List of Publications. The List of Publications is a
Adobe pdf file and you will need the free
Adobe reader to open it.
Posters:
The FGS has many posters available for teachers. Look in the
Poster sections of the
List of Publications. Links have also been supplied below to
some online posters on this website.
Maps:
The FGS has many maps available for teachers. Look in the Map
Series and Open File Map Series sections of the
List of Publications.
. See Links below for other online maps.
2012 State of Florida