Education Summit Brings Leaders Together to Celebrate the Value of Geoscience in Colorado Schools

PDF versionPDF version
Education Summit Brings Leaders Together to Celebrate the Value of Geoscience in Colorado Schools
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
10/9/2015
 
Alexandria, VA - On Tuesday, October 6, geoscience community leaders from Colorado's schools, government, industry, and nonprofit sector met to discuss and celebrate the value of geoscience in education. The American Geosciences Institute (AGI), which organized the event as a special celebration of Earth Science Week (October 11-17), presented Denver-area schools with custom-designed Earth Science Week 2015 Toolboxes during the event.
 
This unprecedented event was organized by the AGI to facilitate continuing partnerships among stakeholder organizations in the local geoscience community. Hosted at the estate of Susan Morrice, Chairperson of the Belize Natural Energy, in Greenwood Village, some 50 leaders were invited by AGI to connect with other stakeholders in the Denver area.
 
"I was delighted to host the first of these very successful gatherings, bringing together the various geoscience sectors to inform both students and the public, the essential balance our world needs," Morrice said "This message was very much in line with the core model I use in both business and in my life."
 
The Denver geoscience community has been one of the most active in Earth Science Week over the past two decades, as activities have culminated in a Denver-area "Citywide Celebration" of Earth Science Week. Tuesday's education summit and stakeholder reception was designed to promote future partnerships among the organizations most responsible for the program's success and others that work toward similar goals of enhancing Earth science awareness.
 
Earth Science Week is one of the premier outreach programs of AGI and helps underscore the critical importance of the geosciences - especially in states like Colorado, with its robust energy, mining, and meteorological industries. 
 
The event was opened by Morrice and Marcelo Godoy, a Group Executive with Newmont Mining Corporation and Denver resident. Attendees discussed the mission of Earth Science Week and the critical importance of geoscience education in an era when topics like jobs, energy, climate, and natural disasters rank among top public concerns. Through this reception, key players from the Denver area engaged with each other to reinforce relationships and foster a geoscience-literate citizenry and possibly even future geoscientists from Colorado. 
 
"It was exciting to see so many representatives from the greater Denver-area earth science community come together and start plans for collaborations and partnerships that will benefit the geosciences and the people of Colorado and the nation," said AGI President, Dr. Eric Riggs.
 
Morrice noted, "As expressed in the meeting, the most important resource to keep in mind, is the Human Resource."
Please contact Geoff Camphire for contact information for event contacts. For more on celebrating Earth Science Week in Denver visit:  http://www.earthsciweek.org/esw-denver.
 
###
 
Reaching over 50 million people annually, Earth Science Week has been led by AGI in cooperation with its sponsors and the geoscience community since 1998. Earth Science Week 2015 will be celebrated October 11-17. To learn more, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/. To order your Toolkits, please visit http://www.earthsciweek.org/materials/index.html. You may also call AGI Publications to place your order at 703-379-2480.
 
###
 
The American Geosciences Institute is a nonprofit federation of geoscientific and professional associations that represents more than 250,000 geologists, geophysicists and other earth scientists. Founded in 1948, AGI provides information services to geoscientists, serves as a voice of shared interests in the profession, plays a major role in strengthening geoscience education, and strives to increase public awareness of the vital role the geosciences play in society's use of resources, resiliency to natural hazards, and interaction with the environment.