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Here's information on our upcoming conference on Best Practices in Marcellus Shale Education. You can direct any questions to me. The tentative agenda is* here<http://thesciencebeneaththesurface.wordpress.com/2013/02/22/best-practices-in-marcellus-shale-education-conference/> *. *Register at th<http://www.museumoftheearth.org/outreach.php?page=Edu_Prog/92387/marcellusconference/marcellus_reg> **is website<http://www.museumoftheearth.org/outreach.php?page=Edu_Prog/92387/marcellusconference/marcellus_reg> * for the *March 18-19* *Best Practices in Marcellus Shale Education Conference, Ithaca, NY* *A conference overview is pasted in below and found here:* http://www.museumoftheearth.org/outreach.php?page=Edu_Prog/92387/marcellusconference **** The focus of the conference will be on education and outreach practices in communicating about Marcellus shale gas drilling and other polarizing issues. The Marcellus Shale will serve as a case study from which we can learn about energy education more broadly, including attention to the challenges of teaching the science of a controversial issue. Topics may include:**** - development of energy literacy,**** - Earth system and environmental literacy,**** - scale in space and time and Earth systems,**** - effective communication about complex and interdisciplinary issues,**** - strategies for teaching and learning about risk, socioeconomic issues, and local and global environmental considerations,**** - the roles of education and advocacy,**** - strategies for maintaining civil discourse, and,**** - broad lessons we are learning for applicability to other energy issues. **** *Threading throughout these topics will be discussions of how to help people to learn and have constructive conversations about energy when the topic is deeply polarizing.* *Who should attend?* The target audience is professional educators striving to provide impartial education and outreach on issues surrounding shale gas development. Examples include schoolteachers, college and university faculty, Cooperative Extension educators, science journalists, and museum educators. Registration will be limited to 50 participants. We seek to have attendees from a broad geographic region and a variety of educators. The meeting will not include talks that focus upon a review of shale gas drilling itself or cover policies and regulations. When the agenda is complete, it will be posted at museumoftheearth.org/marcellusshale. Speakers will include scientists, educators and journalists. There will be a $50 registration fee to help fund the costs of the meeting. The meeting will be partially funded through grants from the National Science Foundation. The meeting will be hosted by the Paleontological Research Institution and the Cornell Cooperative Extension Marcellus Outreach Team. -- Don Duggan-Haas, Ph.D. Education Research Associate Museum of the Earth at the Paleontological Research Institution 1259 Trumansburg Road • Ithaca, NY 14850 • museumoftheearth.org Chair, Geological Society of America Geoscience Education Division phone: 607-821-0910 Skype: dugganhaas *My job is to help Earth & environmental educators kick butt at their jobs. Here are some links related to how my colleagues and I are doing that:* - On virtual fieldwork <http://virtualfieldwork.org> - On the Marcellus Shale and the broader energy system<http://bit.ly/MarcellusGateway> - On connecting the field to the classroom<http://bit.ly/SkypeNiagaraRising>