Sunday, May 10, 2009

Interested in Teaching Earth Science/Geology in California?

I've posted the current teaching opportunities in the California Community College system over at my blog for the Far West Section of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, Teaching the Earth Sciences. Forgive me for shamelessly plugging the site every so often: It doesn't get a lot of traffic, but I think it has great deal of useful information available on teaching and geo-touring in the California-Nevada-Hawaii region. They sell an excellent selection of guidebooks, with the proceeds going to a scholarship fund for earth science students in the region.

Please also catch this important post on the need for support for a change in attitude by the University of California towards the earth sciences in their admission requirements. Earth Science has always taken a back seat to chemistry and physics, and yet is most vivid example of chemistry and physics at work in the real world. We need to support the teaching of the earth sciences at the secondary level.

4 comments:

Gaelyn said...

Good luck. We need more teachers of the earth sciences.

Anonymous said...

The guidebooks look great, but the shipping charges are outrageous - if I ordered $100 in books, I'd have to pay $30 in shipping costs!!! Thanks, but not thanks.

Garry Hayes said...

Anonymous, thanks for your comment. We have to send the books at regular postal rates and they keep going up. Contact Paul (the publications coordinator) with your concerns, especially if there are a large number of books that you want. Also, you give no indication of where you are: the books are housed in the Modesto area, and can be picked up personally. Also, they are sold at FWS conferences with no add-on fees.

Anonymous said...

From your stated shipping rates, I assume you're sending the books via Parcel Post; if you are, you're making a mistake. According the US Postal Service website, shipping a 1-lb book cross-country (CA to NY) costs $2.38 via the Media Mail rate, which books qualify for. The cost per pound drops dramatically with higher weights, so that a 10-lb. package sent via Media Mail costs $5.89. A flat rate of $4 for the first book, plus $1 for every additional book, would more than pay for Media Mail postage plus packaging.

Picking the books up in person is not a practical option for most people.