America’s Geoheritage Workshop II: Identifying, Developing, and Preserving America’s Natural Legacy
Part II: Geoheritage Virtual Writing Workshop
January 10-15, 2021
Organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Board on International Scientific Organizations-U.S. National Committee for Geological Sciences
Sponsored by AASG, AGI, GSA, NAGT, NESTA, NPS, USGS
Supported by NSF
Celebrate America’s Geoheritage! The U.S. National Committee for Geological Sciences is convening a workshop to develop a community vision to encourage the identification, protection, and development of Geoheritage sites across America. “Geoheritage sites are areas of geologic features with significant scientific, educational, cultural, and/or aesthetic value…Many geoheritage sites are tourist destinations that provide local and regional economic benefits” (GSA Position Paper on Geoheritage). This is an opportunity for you to learn more about America’s Geoheritage initiatives, to contribute to this most important project, and to build networks with colleagues who are dedicated to preserving and promoting Geoheritage sites across the country.
This is a call for all stakeholders with interests in Geoheritage to join us for a virtual workshop to exchange ideas, identify needs and opportunities, develop strategies and methods, and develop a community vision for promoting Geoheritage across America. This writing workshop follows the America’s Geoheritage Initiative Distinguished Speaker Webinar Series (Fall 2020; https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/americas-geoheritage-ii-a-workshop) and is the second part of the America’s Geoheritage Workshop II.
When: Week of January 10-15, 2021. The actual time commitment will be ~ 1.5 days effort (~8 hours of scheduled whole group and focus group meetings, and ~4 hours of asynchronous, personal exploration time), although the duration of the workshop spans the whole week.
Why: The goals of the workshop are:
1. To provide the opportunity for participants to share their interests, experiences, and resources to survey the status of Geoheritage across America. This collective information will be used to prepare a NASEM proceedings-in-brief. Your input is needed and will be highly valued!
2. To develop a shared vision for Geoheritage; demonstrate the value of Geoheritage in research, education, and for the general public; develop common definitions and terminology; share “best practices” for documenting and developing Geoheritage sites in state and local settings among the many stakeholders; and survey and share current strategies and approaches to identify, inventory, and characterize Geoheritage sites across America.
3. To determine resources needed to identify and develop Geoheritage sites in diverse local and state settings across the country.
4. To create and support a community of geoscientists and collaborators from the public and private sectors that is dedicated to contributing to a coordinated campaign to identify and preserve Geoheritage sites across America.
5. To explore ways to encourage use of Geoheritage sites by geoscientists, educators, and the general public through dissemination strategies such as development of on-site signage, promotional brochures and maps, development of instructional resources for all educational audiences, and development of websites and other multimedia resources.
What/Program Outline
- Whole group sessions will be scheduled on Sunday for introductions and instructions and again on Friday for report-outs from working groups (times TBD)
- Small-group discussion/writing sessions will be scheduled for two 2-hour sessions on Monday and again on Thursday; participants will apply to participate in groups on topics of interest. Groups will meet initially for 2 hours on Monday (times TBD via polls of groups) to discuss topics in detail and make assignments for further exploration. Groups will reassemble on Thursday (2 hours) to prioritize ideas and prepare report-outs for the Friday plenary session. Focus group topics include:
- America’s Geoheritage Vision, Values, Principles
- America’s Geoheritage and International Geoheritage Initiatives (GGN, IUGS, IUCN)
- Geoheritage “Toolkit”: How to Identify and Develop a Local Geoheritage Site
- Geodiversity/Geoconservation and Relation to Biodiversity
- Geoheritage and Federal Agencies (NPS, USGS, USFS, BLM)
- Geoheritage and State Surveys (AASG)
- Geoheritage and Extractive Resource Industries
- Geoheritage and Geotourism/Outdoor Recreation
- Propose a Local Geoheritage Site
- Geoheritage and Culture; Sense of Place; Indigenous Ways of Knowing; Empowering Participation
- Geoheritage in Support of Geoscience Education (K-12, Undergraduate/Graduate, Informal/Outreach)
- Geoheritage in Support of Geoscience Research
- Geoheritage and Geoethics
- Asynchronous explorations of Geoheritage: Tuesday and Wednesday are scheduled for individual, asynchronous time for participants to explore their assigned Geoheritage topics and collect information in the group workspaces. Additional informal meetings can be scheduled upon request, and participants are encouraged to interact with other focus groups to help integrate the overall initiative. The assembled personal reflections, references, and links to other resources will provide the basic information for report-outs to the whole workshop and for the NASEM proceedings-in-brief.
- Informal Networking: We will provide opportunities at the end of each day for “virtual mixers” to facilitate networking among our many diverse participants. Make a new friend!
How: The general plenary session and scheduled focus group sessions will be convened using a Zoom-type platform. Each focus group will have a dedicated virtual folder that contains a) participant list and contact information for the group members; b) a set of “guiding questions” to help start discussions and to provide context for information needed for the proceedings-in-brief; c) a set of suggested references to inform the group’s work, and with encouragement for participants to add to the reference list; PDFs of pertinent literature when possible. Each group will have an assigned facilitator to keep the discussion focused and a reporter/recorder. The record of each group’s work will be in a community-authored document such as Google Docs, where all participants are encouraged to submit their ideas, references, etc.
Expectations:
- Participants are expected to attend the opening plenary session on Sunday (2-3 hours), and the closing plenary session on Friday (2-3 hours) when group report-outs will be presented.
- Participants are also expected to attend their working/writing group meetings on Monday (2 hours) and Thursday (2 hours), with times to be determined via polling of the members ahead of time.
- We value the ideas and experiences of all participants, and we encourage you to contribute to the focus group documents and collections of references and resources for the benefit of all who are working to develop Geoheritage sites or programs.
- The success of the workshop will depend on all participants coming to the workshop prepared to work on their assigned topics. Please plan to do the recommended reading and bring related resources to the workshop to share with the group. Take some time over the holiday break to explore your assigned Geoheritage topics and come to the workshop ready to work.
- When contacted, please fill out the time poll immediately to help us schedule your group meetings. Try to reserve blocks of time in your schedules on Monday January 11 and Thursday January 14 now to facilitate our scheduling of the numerous focus groups.
The application period has closed
To view a recording of the opening plenary, please visit: https://vimeo.com/506147792
To view a recording of the closing plenary, please visit: https://vimeo.com/506148848
Background Information
For Further Information
Contact: David Mogk, mogk@montana.edu
Ester Sztein, ESztein@nas.edu