Current Activities Teaching Climate Change Workshop Seeking Applicants On June 2-4, 2008, AMQUA, the USNC/INQUA, and National Association of Geoscience Teachers/Digital Library for Earth System Education (NAGT/DLESE), in conjunction with the 2008 AMQUA Biennial Meeting, sponsored an On the Cutting Edge workshop on Teaching Climate Change with Ice Core Data. The event took place at the Penn State University Park campus in State College, Pennsylvania. The workshop was limited to 50 participants who teach undergraduate-level courses in climate as part of archaeology, biology, environmental science, and geology curricula. Participants shared a willingness to collaborate in their experiences teaching about ice cores and how they have enhanced their course materials through hands-on exercises and labs. Following the event, workshop attendees were encouraged to stay and participate in the AMQUA Biennial Meeting. The application deadline for the workshop was April 1st. View event details.
	Workshop Schedule: June 2, 2008: Evening Dinner at the Atherton Hotel, State College, with keynote talk by Richard Alley (Penn State) – Lessons from ice cores: what nature does and doesn't do to our climate June 3, 2008: 8:00 am – 6:00 pm Sridhar Anandakrishnan (Penn State) - Ice sheets and ice cores Todd Sowers (Penn State) - Gas bubble studies in ice cores Richard Alley (Penn State) - Ice cores, climate change and polar see-saws Carrie Morrill (NOAA, Boulder) - Accessing Ice Core data in the NOAA Paleoclimatology Program June 4, 2008: Morning Todd Sowers will lead a visit to the Penn State ice core research labs.
Travel Grants for U.S. Students to attend the INQUA Congress Fifteen travel grants were awarded by the USNC/INQUA to young U.S. scientists and graduate students, enabling them to participate in the 2007 INQUA Congress in Cairns, Australia by presenting posters at break-out sessions. The awardees reported that the Congress was a wonderful opportunity at which they received feedback on their research, made contacts with important figures in Quaternary science, and became familiar with new techniques and research initiatives in the field.
Past Activities Teaching Climate Change: Lessons from the Past
Graduate students working at an excavation of El Miron Cave in Cantabria, Spain with USNC member Lawrence Straus.			Teaching Climate Change: Lessons from the Past was a workshop co-sponsored by AMQUA, the USNC/INQUA, and the NSF-funded NAGT/DLESE On the Cutting Edge Project held on August 14-15, 2006, prior to the 2006 AMQUA meeting. Designed to help faculty stay up-to-date with climate change research and teaching methods, the workshop served as a first step towards addressing the questions of “where” and “how” science educators are teaching climate change in the undergraduate curriculum. Lessons from the Past is the predecessor to the 2008 workshop Teaching Climate Change with Ice Core Data, which will be held June 2-3, 2008 at the Pennsylvania State University. Learn more about the On the Cutting Edge Series.
Success in Making the Case for Full INQUA Membership in ICSU
The USNC/INQUA actively supported INQUA’s efforts to become a full, rather than associate, member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). Working with union President John Clague of Canada, the USNC made this effort to promote Quaternary science internationally, strengthen the union, and help maintain the membership of national committees from other countries in the union. The committee has drafted a statement of justification for INQUA’s full membership in ICSU. In addition, the USNC met with representatives of the other geological USNCs, including geology, geodesy and geophysics, and soil science at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Geophysical Union. The information gathered during this meeting was incorporated into the statement of justification.					International Council for Science (ICSU)

Revised: 25 June 2008