Read more about this development.

View race results and photos.

Thanks to more than 500 tickets sold, we’ve haven’t just broken our own record from 2010, we’re still the top conference in San Francisco that uses BART for airport travel.  As a result, we saved an equivalent of 22,484 lbs of CO2 and AGU will donate more than $9,500 to Save the Bay.

Thanks to everyone who helped us stay at #1!

Read more about AGU’s 2011 Fall Meeting.

Mark your calendar! The 2012 Fall Meeting will be held Thursday, 6 Dec. – Monday, 10 Dec. 2012.

Also be sure to check your email and fill out your evaluation forms – we want to hear your feedback!

Thanks to all of our attendees for making this another great year!

View conference photos >>

The students hail from a wide variety of middle and high schools, and many are members of special internship programs that take place at universities and science centers. Bright STaRS has been taking place for several years, and this year we were thrilled to welcome back several returning local groups along with new students from California and beyond. It’s wonderful to see this program growing in scope, as nurturing the next generation of Earth and space scientists is a key factor in ensuring that we’ll have a geoscience workforce of the future.

Student projects were similarly varied, covering topics such as air quality monitoring, intertidal and freshwater environmental monitoring, and nanotechnology. The students enthusiastically presented their work to scientists in the poster hall, and many relayed their plans for continued research throughout their high school years or talked about their next steps as they prepare to attend college. When asked about their favorite part of the program, students mentioned that collecting and analyzing data made them feel like ‘real’ scientists, and followed up with an enthusiastic “I love science”!

We in AGU education look forward to seeing the results of current studies that are tracking some of the students after they graduate from Bright STaRS. This program is vitally important, and we are committed to helping it to grow.

In that big basement, I did find thought provoking insights. But world improving devices were harder to find. They were there already, but hidden on posters that dealt with the results of using these devices. Which is a pity: these devices deserve their own stage!

The auto-start-auto-shut-down-take-pictures-during-rain-camera that Andrew Wickert made was presented in a session on “Postwildfire Landscape Response”. The cave-surface-scanning-hacked-Kinect (a game console controller!) hacked by Kenneth Mankoff was presented in a session on “Observations and Techniques in Polar Regions”. This means that people outside these specialized disciplines will not hear about new sensor methods that might be useful for their own discipline. And that is a shame!

Ryan Stewarts Resonating Raingauge

In the Hydrology Section, we have been organizing our so called “MacGyver” poster session for 3 years, asking anyone that has tinkered their own sensor or anyone that has hacked or altered existing equipment to use it for something it wasn’t intended for to present their work. Like Colin Campbells NDVI scanner based on using LED-s as sensors. Or Ryan Stewarts “shaking rain gauge” based on determining the change in resonance frequency of a bucket on a stick. Real inventions, still in the “proof of concept stage”. With potential to be used by people in other fields.

In my opinion, which I recently expressed at TEDxDelft, tinkering is a good way of solving problems. Geoscientist are perfectly equipped to be tinkerers. Their formal academic education gives them the analytical skill to solve complex problems. Their outside, field experience gives them the pragmatic attitude needed to “make things work”. If you find yourself in your basement (or your lab, shed, or field site!), working on some new or improved measurement device, consider sharing your work with people outside of your field. The 2012 MacGyver session will hopefully be co-hosted by the other sections to encourage cross section sharing of ideas.

See you in 2012; don’t forget to bring your duct-tape!

- Rolf Hut, AGU Hydrology Section Student Representative

More information coming soon.

This luncheon workshop will emphasize that good policy is informed by good science.  As a scientist, you have every reason to establish a relationship with your legislators.  At the event, AGU’s 2009-2010 Congressional Science Fellow, Maeve Boland, will use her experience as a scientist and legislative staff member to teach you how to effectively share your science with local and national policymakers.

Maeve is excellent at telling it how it is with tips for scientists such as “define your message.” When speaking to legislators you must have a clear defined message and be prepared to deliver in 2-3 minutes.

Also, she suggests that you “focus on impacts.” Not only as a scientist do you need a clear defined message, but you must also be able to explain why you are asking for something and the importance this will have on society. You should not leave congressional staff wondering, “So what? Who cares?” Ask these same questions to yourself in advance, as this will help identify your message and prepare you for the meeting.

So don’t miss this opportunity to have a dialogue with Maeve about the do’s and don’ts of communicating with Congress.  Join us on Thursday at 12:30 p.m. in the Intercontinental Hotel over lunch and great discussion.

Maeve received her B.A. and M.S. in geology from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.  After working in the mining and petroleum industry and for the Geological Survey of Ireland, Maeve moved to the U.S. and received her Ph.D. from the Colorado School of Mines in 2005.  Her research centered on a policy appraisal of the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Map, a federal program providing basic geospatial data for the U.S.

-Kristan Uhlenbrock, AGU Public Affairs Coordinator