Many disciplines within the geosciences require computational skills to access, analyze, and visualize data. These are skills students need to be competitive in the work environment. Applying computational thinking and basic coding into the classroom can diversify student learning, develop 21st century skills, and demonstrate real world applications through project based learning. Teaching students to have a broad base of knowledge and a range of skills is paramount in developing career ready-students. Working in collaboration with members of the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Education committee, education professionals from UNAVCO, NOAA, Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies and teachers from schools around the country are exploring the use of basic coding and programmable robots as a springboard to learn computational thinking and skills within an Earth science context. By encouraging teachers to learn how to code, we help them to encourage their students to be creators, more than just consumers, of the technology around us and to foster curiosity that whets their appetites to learn more!. This presentation will elaborate upon coding in the classroom initiatives these partners are facilitating from workshops, learning materials, and insights from workshop feedback.

As the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System is launched along the West Coast, how will this change the situational awareness and preparation actions of individuals who live and work in this region? This presentation describes the preliminary findings from a qualitative research study investigating the processes individuals who live and work near coastal Oregon experience as they develop earthquake and tsunami readiness and preparedness. This study provides a current snapshot before a local EWS is available. Getting ready and preparing to respond to natural hazards involves many layers of society from federal to individual efforts. When the natural hazard is a sudden-onset event with a high potential impact, such as an earthquake and tsunamis, many interoperating social, governmental, technical, and scientific systems are needed before the event occurs to prepare and create resilient communities and individuals who can thrive post-event. For individuals, very different types of actions are needed to become prepared before, to respond during, and to survive long-term from an earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. The Oregon Office of Emergency Management currently recommends that everyone should be prepared for two weeks if a major 8.5+ magnitude earthquake hits Oregon; for coastal communities, local agencies recommend closer to four weeks of supplies. This study has been investigating the processes jobholders and residents of coastal Oregon describe as they’ve actively prepared for earthquake and tsunami hazards. During these discussions, they are providing insight into what has encouraged and created obstacles to actively preparing for the eventual subduction earthquake and subsequent tsunamis. This presentation will share the progress of this project and suggestions for future research after ShakeAlert is implemented.

As a multi-year coding in the classroom initiative, the Earth Science Information Partners’ education committee and community members have been exploring how to integrate coding skills and computational thinking within an Earth science context. This presentation describes a Jupyter notebook project that resulted in a professional development Data to Action Education Workshop during the ESIP 2019 Summer Meeting in Tacoma, Washington. The main goal of the workshop was to provide K-12 teacher participants the opportunity to learn how modify and run code that would display and analyze data about hurricanes in the Atlantic basin using a Jupyter Notebook. The topic was chosen for two specific reasons. Middle- and high- school Earth Science curricula include a learning unit about weather, particularly hurricanes, as a topic of instruction thus the content could be a natural fit into most classrooms. Secondly, employing a familiar content area in a coding-dedicated workshop meant that teachers could focus on the code itself and bring their knowledge about hurricanes to create new questions to explore. Workshop participants included in-service teachers currently instructing in middle and/or high school geoscience or technology courses, most of whom had very little or no background in programming. Teachers became familiar with the Jupyter environment, gained experience in interpreting coding cell content, and built confidence in manipulating code and parameters to develop graphical outputs. Through merging coding practice applied to learning instructional content, teachers were able to experiment and succeed (or fail) in a safe environment, practicing the skills their students need to learn. By encouraging teachers to learn how to code, we help them to foster their students curiosity to be creators, more than just consumers, of the technology around us and develop skills paramount to be career- and college-ready. We discuss the pedagogical and technical approaches and lessons learned through the design, development, implementation, and evaluation phases of this project.