Paleonet: final request for feedback on Earth science literacy document

[Robert M. Ross]

Dear colleagues,

By January 15th please go to www.EarthScienceLiteracy.org to provide 
input upon the latest revision of the Earth Science Literacy Initiative 
document. Hundreds of geoscientists have contributed. This will the last 
round of edits before the document is finalized.
Note that "Big Idea 6" covers broad ideas in paleontology and evolution, 
and "Big Idea 2" covers the broadest concepts of Earth history.

Thank you.

Rob Ross

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The Earth Science Literacy Draft Document:

The NSF-supported Earth Science Literacy Initiative has prepared a draft 
document outlining what every citizen should know about Earth science, 
and we are seeking community input on the most recent draft. A first 
public draft was announced and open for comments during October, 2008. 
These comments have been incorporated into the document, and a second 
round of comments opened on Monday, December 15. We hope that you will 
take the time to provide your input because this document will provide a 
clear and concise summary of the fundamental ideas in Earth science for 
policy makers, educators, students, and the general public.

This document complements the efforts of the Ocean, Climate and 
Atmospheric science communities in defining the big ideas and supporting 
concepts essential for an earth-system literate public. The Earth 
Sciences draft was developed through an NSF-supported, 350-participant 
online workshop held in May, 2008 and a 35-participant, in-person 
writing workshop held in July, 2008.  These workshops brought together 
scientists from a broad representation of the geosciences, including 
mineralogists, petrologists, resource explorationists, sedimentologists 
and statigraphers, paleontologists, tectonists, geophysists, 
geomorphologists, low-temperature geochemists and biogeochemists, 
continental dynamacists, volcanologists, geohazard specialists, and 
members of the freshwater hydrologic science community. The document has 
gone through several rounds of revisions since then, and though it is 
already the product of 10,000s of hours of work, we want to make sure 
that it represents the current state of Earth science understanding.

This is a critical time for our science -- the geosciences can play a 
critical role in helping society meet the challenges of natural hazards 
and human impacts on the environment.  Please help us make this document 
accurate and engaging!

Please contact Michael Wysession at michael at seismo.wustl.edu with any 
questions.