For Educators

The U.S. Geological Survey provides scientific information intended to help educate the public about natural resources, natural hazards, geospatial data, and issues that affect our quality of life. The USGS serves the Nation by providing reliable scientific information to describe and understand the Earth; and enhance and protect our quality of life.

The materials and Web sites below represent the combined efforts of the USGS and our collaborating institutions to reach the ever growing needs of the public. The products and Web links below are to serve as a starting point for educators to see what types of materials are available to assist in lesson planning, public presentations, and increasing the scientific understanding of our dynamic planet.

Presentation: A presentation summarizing results of the Marine Aggregate Resources and Processes project as part of the paper: Williams, S.J., 2005, Regional-scale understanding of the geologic character and sand resources of the Atlantic inner continental shelf, Maine to Virginia, Proceedings, Second Regional Conference on Dredging, Beach Nourishment, and Bird Conservation, 25-27 Oct 2005 (presentation).

References: References on marine sand and gravel studies and resources can be found in USGS Open File Report 2003-300 (Williams and others, 2004) and can help provide background information on the geologic framework of continental shelf sediments and processes.

Plotting: Plotting sediment data from the usSEABED program can be done using Matlab routines available on the user contributed code library of the Mathworks Web site (shepard.m, schlee.m, Folk_S_Classification.m). These scripts were written by members of the Woods Hole Science Center staff to help visualize the compositional components of sediment samples on a ternary diagram.

Movie: New Orleans - THE NATURAL HISTORY - by Walter Williams. Walter Williams has filmed New Orleans on many occasions, including this pre-Hurricane Katrina documentary on the natural forces surrounding New orleans. The movie may also be found in U.S. Geological Survey Digital Data Series 79 (Williams and others, 2003) low resolution version is available on DVD courtesy of Mr. Williams.

Additional Resources Available Online:

USGS maintains a Web page of Educational Resources, (including A Primer On Natural Aggregate, and Schoolyard Geology).

USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program provides additional information and educational resources that are available on their Web site, searchable by the term 'Educational Materials'.

The NOAA Coastal Services Center is an office within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration devoted to serving the nation's state and local coastal resource management programs.

Minerals Management Service maintains a Kids' Pages with excellent materials on a number of scientific topics, including The Ocean's Sand, A Natural Resource (Adobe pdf format)

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has an Education Center which includes lessons and materials in navigation, sedimentation, and many other topics tied to engineering in the coastal environment.

GIS in Louisiana

Louisiana Statewide GIS Atlas
Louisiana Dept. of Environmental Quality GIS Center
Louisiana State Land Office GIS Lab

GIS in Florida

Florida DEP Geographic Information Systems
Florida Geographic Data Library
Florida GIS Data

GIS in Texas

Texas Geographic Information Council
Texas Natural Resources Information System
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission
East Texas GIS and GPS Users Group
North Central Texas GIS Coordinating Council
Round Rock GIS Data Sets

GIS in Alabama

Geological Survey of Alabama GIS Group
Alabama Coastal Hazards Assessments GIS
Alabama Land Resource Information Center
Alabama Geographic Alliance

GIS in Mississippi

Mississippi Automated Resource Mapping System (MARIS)

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