Calling all community college (2YC) or other
introductory-level instructors!
Do you want to learn how to incorporate land surface hazards (like landslides) into your class with teaching tools that emphasize systems interactions?
Register to attend the Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH) Workshop at EER 2026:
“Beyond the Breaking News: Using Land Surface Hazard Data to Teach Earth Systems Connections to Intro Geoscience Students”
Join us for a 2-day workshop at the Earth Educator Rendezvous (EER) in Columbia, South Carolina this summer! By the end of the workshop, you should be able to:
- Identify resources you can use to incorporate relevant natural hazards into introductory-level courses
- Modify an existing lesson plan on land surface hazards to do one or more of the following:
- Fit your curricular needs
- Accommodate local datasets relevant to students
- Incorporate systems interactions and feedbacks to illustrate interconnectedness of surface hazards
- Establish a network of 2YC and introductory faculty who teach interconnected land surface hazards
- Give input on how to serve 2YC and introductory instructors and students better in future CLaSH activities
See registration details below!
How do I sign up?
To register for this workshop, you must first register to attend the EER Conference:
- Register for the EER Conference: https://serc.carleton.edu/earth_rendezvous/2026/registration.html
- A limited number of $100 stipends are available to eligible participants* to support participation in the workshop; we will prioritize 2YC instructors and other applicants who teach land surface hazards at the introductory level. Apply using this stipend application form.
- *Stipends are NSF-funded so recipients must be a U.S. citizen, a permanent resident, or in the employ of a U.S. institution. Participants may choose to waive stipends. All participants are expected to participate in the entire workshop. All stipends will be disbursed after the Rendezvous.
Location
- University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC
- Early bird conference registration ends May 5, 2026!
Course Description
Natural hazard case studies engage introductory geoscience students by highlighting the real-world impacts of geoscience knowledge and the societal relevance of developing geoscience skills. Creating introductory lesson plans about recent local events can be challenging as multiple land surface hazards coexist and existing textbooks often treat land surface hazards in isolation.
For example, hurricanes trigger landslide events and debris flows that then alter rivers and lead to changes in flooding hazard. Highlighting the interconnected nature of Earth surface hazards can help students understand systems interactions and the need for a comprehensive disaster preparedness and emergency response plan when examining societal impacts of hazards.
The Center for Land Surface Hazards (CLaSH) focuses on the cumulative impacts of cascading hazards and is building a community of 2YC instructors with capacity to teach geoscience skills and systems thinking to the next generation of geoscientists and emergency management professionals. In this workshop, we will provide examples of land surface hazards case studies appropriate for introductory classes. Then, participants will work in teams to modify existing lessons to highlight systems interactions and incorporate relevant, place-based data. We hope to establish a network of 2YC and other introductory geoscience educators who are interested in receiving further training in cascading land surface hazards and creating teaching resources that help students recognize geoscience connections to their communities and can be adapted to specific issues in different regions.