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Today, earth sciences engineering education programs face with serious problems. It is often not possible to provide experience on different geographical environments or materials. Considering these problems of earth science related engineering education programs, virtual reality environment potentially can provide technology enhanced training alternatives. However, in the literature there are not many studies showing how virtual reality can enhance the earth science related engineering education programs. Accordingly, the aim of this mapping of the literature and systematic review study is to explore studies dealing with virtual reality in the earth sciences engineering education programs. Through a rigorous screening process, the first search in the Scopus database provided 150 studies, where 19 of them were selected in the course of this study and the mapping of the literature report was drawn with all these articles. Additionally, with seven of these articles a systematic review is conducted. The mapping of the literature report shows that studies on this topic have increased in recent years and have been published in a variety of journals. The number of China and USA origins studies are remarkable among the examined studies, which are predominantly in the fields of mining engineering and geological engineering. As a result of the in-depth analyses, the systematic review report indicates that virtual reality applications in the earth sciences engineering education positively contribute to the learning outcomes and experiences of students/trainees from different perspectives.

Learners with disabilities are often denied field-based learning experiences in naturalistic disciplines. Geology can present substantial barriers due to rugged terrain in difficult-to-reach locations. In 2014, a field trip was executed with the dual purpose of 1) designing inclusion in field learning and 2) demonstrating to college faculty an accessible field experience. Direct observations of participants on the trip, as well as pre- and post-trip focus groups, illuminate the student and faculty field learning experience. Geoscience faculty have little guidance or support in understanding what disability is, how to reconcile accommodation with field-geology learning goals, and they cited instances where disability service providers acted as gatekeepers. The net effect of these ontologies is to reduce faculty empathy with, and thus their ability to be inclusive of, students with disabilities in field settings. Recommendations for instructors include taking campus disability-services administrators on field trips, opening and maintaining communications with disability service providers, and designing pedagogically sound field trips that align as much as possible to principles of universal design. An advocacy approach is described, which focuses on the students and the educational process, instead of on institutional compliance. Finally, geoscience faculty should conceptualize disability service providers as accessibility service providers. Keywords: field trips, Earth science, accessibility, inclusive, disabilities.

Recruitment and retention are critical for geoscience and the need for innovative ways of building these bridges to the geosciences is growing. Field experiences are a common attractor for students to the field sciences such as geoscience, but many research- and field-based experiences are limited to those who are already majors. Innovative, experiential approaches to geoscience recruitment and retention could be a new way to attract more students to geoscience. International field and research experiences designed for undergraduates from any academic discipline aim to provide opportunities for students to explore their (geo)science interests and potential career paths. A single, exploratory case study approach with semi-structured interviews combined with quantitative pre- and post-survey results is used to highlight the experiences of four students and their plans for continuing in the geosciences. Students (including geoscience and non-geoscience majors) were found to have had inherent, pre-college, and college influences for participation in the field experience; all students indicated plans to continue in the geosciences. Two years after the experience, researchers followed-up with the students and found that three of the four were still involved in the geosciences. Many international geoscience field experiences are exclusively for majors, but experiential learning opportunities like these should also be considered for potential majors. These results are beneficial for departments interested in designing and adapting their recruitment and retention efforts to better train the next generation of geoscientists.

The online learning environment can add substantial advantages to learning such as continuous access to material and the ability to foster learning through additional visual supplemental materials, but it can also add further challenges that may not be as evident when teaching traditional, face-to-face courses. An individual's place affiliation may impact learning outcomes in geographically-dependent science content-specific science courses such as geoscience courses. This study focused on challenges associated with teaching and assessing geographically-dependent content in online master's level geology and meteorology courses. Students in these courses were asked to identify their home regions prior to the start of the master's program. When assessments for both courses were analyzed using a repeated-measures test, meteorology courses revealed significant differences between students' home regions for multiple assessments.

Results from a national needs assessment survey advertised through science teacher networks with the title "Polar Education--Teacher Input Needed" showed that the majority (90%) of teachers that responded are teaching about polar topics or polar regions. We received 508 responses from elementary to post-secondary teachers across the United States. The survey assessed in which classes polar topics are being taught (high school environmental science classes had the highest percentages; [greater than or equal to] 83%), which polar topics are being taught in classes and which topics teachers would like to teach more, what kind of polar education resources teachers are aware of (the majority of respondents, 66%, did not list more than 2 resources), and whether teachers had received professional development on polar topics (81% of teachers had not). Additionally, teachers' knowledge of polar topics was compared to the public's, using item blocks from representative public surveys. Results showed that teacher respondents' knowledge of polar topics consistently exceeded public knowledge. Based on the findings from the survey, we recommend that the polar education community continue to develop educational resources, offer professional development and conduct outreach to K-12 teachers. Specifically, we recommend a focus on: curating classroom-ready authentic data sets based on current polar research, multidisciplinary curricular materials that build on real world geopolitical issues and the historical importance of polar exploration, and curriculum for teaching ocean acidification, ocean ecosystems, and polar teleconnections to global climate.

In the U.S. Antarctic Program, NSF-funded scientists--most from universities--perform basic research in geosciences and other disciplines at research stations or field camps throughout the continent and the Southern Ocean. Scholars in the humanities, as well as support specialists from various fields, work closely together with the scientists. Mutual dependence for everything ranging from transportation to meals is typical. Anecdotal evidence is that participants benefit in their professional and personal lives from the close associations in both the work and the domestic proximities that are normal. This Commentary describes the work of some individuals who have advanced understanding of Antarctic topics in collaborative approaches.

GeoCamp Iceland is a local program designed in Iceland to provide "field-based educational experiences dedicated to increasing knowledge through practical and active learning" in subjects related to earth science and renewable energy (Morrill and Waite 2019). Since 2015, NCGE has partnered with GeoCamp Iceland to offer an in-service, field-based, geography professional development program for US educators in Iceland. The course is designed to be interdisciplinary in content; the course objectives are to build capacity in geography, specifically, spatial thinking, geography inquiry, and field methods, while focusing on the topics of geology, renewable energy, history, and culture. As part of a participant's research project, the value of virtual reality (VR) was recognized to support participant learning in the program and as a means for participants to bring back the experience to their students. VR data collection was conducted during the 2019 program and consisted of capturing 360-degree photos at the course sites. Since the 2019 course, the development of an accessible VR educational platform (GeoEPIC) has been ongoing. With the cancellation of the 2020 NCGE-GeoCamp Iceland program and future travel limitations unknown at the time of writing, the VR education platform and data have been the focus of work as organizers create a virtual experiential learning opportunity. GeoEPIC is being developed as a learning platform, not simply a visualization tool, to support an in-app field experience situated in geographic context and representation and explored through geographic skills while learning about energy, historical, or cultural phenomena. While not intending to replace an in-person, on-site experience, the app can support preparatory trip learning activities, enhance learner follow-up reflection, or substitute the site experiences within a trip if the location is inaccessible by enabling virtual exploration of a place. The interdisciplinary focus of the learning model remains whether in-person or in-app; the model and its implementation will be described in this article.

While interdisciplinary collaboration is desired among researchers, traditional science instruction generally results in science disciplines being taught as separate entities. This study focuses on student understanding of concepts at the intersection of two isolated disciplines--geoscience and bioscience--across two purposeful samples of college-aged students (United States, Germany). Specifically, we explored: (1) how students conceptualize large-scale biologic and geologic changes on Earth over deep time; (2) the relationship between student's conceptions and their understanding of evolutionary and geologic theories; and (3) how those conceptualizations explicate the need for integration of concepts within school curricula. Students were asked to respond to items about seven major evolutionary events in Earth's history (biosciences) and perceived changes to Earth's size and continental positions over time (geosciences). Both groups exhibited difficulties understanding absolute ages in deep time, although Young Earth and Young Life perspectives were present in the U.S. group and absent in the German group. Conceptions about changes to Earth's size and continental positions over time were consistent across both groups. Findings highlight the need for scientific education instruction in both countries that is interdisciplinary in content.

In this study, we explore how cross-linguistic differences can contribute to children's scientific thinking. We compared first and third grade Chinese students' pre-instructional ideas of the earth expressed in clinical interviews with that of their English-speaking and Greek-speaking counterparts (as recorded in the literature). Inspired by a "Complex Dynamic Systems" (CDS) theoretical perspective on cognition and by the literature on "linguistic relativity" we hypothesized that in cases when two language systems offer greatly different linguistic elements, differences can be expected in how these elements interact with other types of conceptual elements. Consequently, such changes in dynamics may lead to variations in system-level conceptual structures emerging from native speakers of different languages. Our findings showed that (1) Chinese students held no flat or dual earth type of pre-instructional ideas about the earth; (2) Chinese students provided significantly more sphere-based responses than their American and Greek counterparts when responding to questions directly addressing the shape of the earth; (3) such cross-linguistic differences largely vanished for questions not directly getting at the shape of the earth, resulting in high frequency of inconsistency when responses to all the interview questions were interpreted as a whole. We discuss the significance and possible implications of these results for research on cross-cultural conceptual development and for teaching and learning science.

International comparisons of school-level geoscience education across the world had shown great variability in the amount and content of the geoscience materials and in the ways in which it was taught. When this situation was discussed at meetings of organisations concerned with international school-level geoscience education in 2012, the decision was taken to develop an international geoscience syllabus that could be used in future discussions with curriculum developers, many of whom have little geoscience understanding. The new syllabus that was developed was based on a holistic systems approach, as advocated in the literature, and is presented in ways most easily assimilated by non-geoscience expert curriculum developers. The more detailed content was determined through an analysis of the geoscience content of curricula of a range of countries, since it is easier to argue for material to be included if it is already being taught elsewhere across the world. The syllabus was published on websites in January 2014. It has the potential to enhance Earth science education across the world, increasing the Earth science literacy of all pupils involved, whilst encouraging some to become the geoscientists of the future.

As the United States strives to achieve energy independence, students need to be literate about energy and environmental issues. In this article, the authors present a lesson about the nation's electricity resources that is part 1 of a free, comprehensive unit on coal and energy that is available online (http://tinyurl.com/coalenergyunit). The comprehensive unit, which was developed by graduate students supported by the Transforming Earth System Science Education project at Penn State University, contains inquiry-based lessons designed to deepen students' understanding of key Earth-science issues. Data on electricity-generation resources in the United States, including both renewable and nonrenewable types, are highlighted within the lesson of part 1. Part 2 of the comprehensive unit includes lessons that address more detail about coal. In both parts of the unit, students learn fundamental information about the development and use of domestic energy sources. The full lesson for part 1 is included here, but both parts of the comprehensive unit are also described. Completion of all or part of the unit will provide an interdisciplinary look at the nation's energy resources. (Contains 4 figures and 1 online resource.)

High school biology teachers face many challenges as they teach evolution. State standards for evolution may provide support for sound evolution instruction. This study attempts to build upon previous work by investigating teachers' views of evolution standards and their evolution practices in a state where evolution standards have been much-contested. This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods approach investigating the views of 129 Ohio high school biology teachers. Participants completed two surveys targeting their views of evolution standards and evolution teaching practices. Using a checklist, participants also indicated the evolution topics they addressed. All participants were invited to provide qualitative responses to the survey, and 16% of the respondents answered four open-ended questions via a follow-up email. Overall, teachers regarded evolution standards positively and reported spending an average of 11.6 hours teaching evolution. With respect to specific evolution teaching practices, teachers most often indicated that they addressed the mechanism of natural selection, anatomical evidence for evolution, adaptation, fossil record, connections between genetics and evolution, and information about Charles Darwin. Furthermore, statistical comparisons revealed that teachers who held more positive views of the evolution standards covered more standards-based and non-standards based evolutionary topics than their less positive colleagues. (Contains 4 tables.)

Earthquakes "have" been in the news of late--from the disastrous 2010 Haitian temblor that killed more than 300,000 people to the March 2011 earthquake and devastating tsunami in Honshu, Japan, to the unexpected August 2011 earthquake in Mineral, Virginia, felt from Alabama to Maine and as far west as Illinois. As expected, these events aroused students' curiosity. To address their many questions, the authors developed the "It's 'Your' Fault!" assignment, in which students investigate and monitor fault zones around the world. This article describes the project and the science upon which it is based: seismology. (Contains 4 figures and 5 online resources.)

Concerns are growing regarding the availability of sustainable energy sources due to a rapidly growing human population and a better understanding of climate change. In recent years, the United States has focused much attention on developing domestic energy sources, which include coal-bed methane (CBM). There are vast deposits of the natural gas within the Powder River Basin (PRB), Wyoming. A sharp increase in exploration and development of CBM in the region has led to a decline in the surrounding greater sage-grouse ("Centrocercus urophasianus") populations in developed areas. This case study presents the issues surrounding CBM development and sage-grouse conservation within the PRB and provides instructors with online resources and classroom activities that can be used to stimulate and develop students' active learning and critical thinking skills. (Contains 4 exhibits.)

This article addresses the development of a conceptual model of fieldwork practice and the creation of an associated set of skills for the geosciences. The set of eight generic and seventeen specific skills is applied in two international field courses to demonstrate the utility of such a skills-centered model across a broad range of venues, curricula, and students. Both concept and practice from U.K. and U.S. universities have been welded as a means of internationalizing curriculum development. Further, it is suggested that there is merit in faculty viewing their field teaching within the framework of the whole subject curriculum such that field courses and sites are viewed as much for their contribution to the overall skill set as their support for the classroom topic. (Contains 5 figures and 2 tables.)

The purpose of this study is to investigate in what ways the inquiry task of teaching and learning in earth science textbooks reflect the unique characteristics of earth science inquiry methodology, and how it provides students with opportunities to develop their scientific reasoning skills. This study analyzes a number of inquiry activities in both Korean and American earth science curriculums by using an analysis framework of earth science inquiry methodology. Results suggest that Earth science activities in Korean textbooks appropriately reflect comprehensive earth science methodologies and provide students with more opportunities to develop their earth scientific literacy, while the American curriculum used in the U.S. included only a small number of inquiry-based activities. (Contains 3 tables.)

This study examines the relationship of gender and spatial perception on student interactivity with contour maps and non-immersive virtual reality. Eighteen eighth-grade students elected to participate in a six-week activity-based course called "3-D GeoMapping." The course included nine days of activities related to topographic mapping. At the end of the course, the students were required to locate the position of a photographer on a contour map by studying a 360-degree VR panorama assembled from images captured by the photographer. There were six different locations in the assessment. All student interactions with the VR panorama and contour map were recorded on videotape. Males tended to be more successful on some of the locations, and those students with better spatial perception abilities were able to determine the locations with fewer trials. Suggestions for software modification and additional research are included. (Contains 3 tables and 3 figures.)

International experiential learning projects have increased in popularity over recent years, and many of these projects focus on environmental topics in the developing world. An experimental course in International Groundwater Studies was developed to bridge the gap between extracurricular service type programs and academically-based study abroad programs. The course included online instruction in order to accommodate varying student schedules, and an eight-day field trip to Guatemala was included in the curriculum. These challenging situational factors led to the decision to apply formal design theory to the course, and qualitative self-reported data were collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the formally-designed course to address both the course learning objectives as well as concerns regarding collaborative functionality between students who had had little in-person interaction prior to traveling. (Contains 4 tables.)

The American public is now faced with a baffling array of new environmental issues--much more complicated than the problems people faced 30 years ago. Scientists recognize new threats to the biosphere, the fabric of natural ecosystems, and the diversity of plants and animals that inhabit them. Unlike the obvious, toxic pollutants that spurred the environmental movement of the 1960s, there are now signs of subtle, diffuse, and long-term effects on nature, cast by the six billion humans on Earth, each in the pursuit of a higher standard of living. In the face of an increasing onslaught and complexity of environmental issues, people will make only limited progress in protecting the environment until they have a cadre of highly trained environmental scientists who understand how the Earth works, policymakers who can advise them on the best solution to environmental problems, and a citizenry that respects their judgments. The author has the privilege of running the Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, the nation's first professional school of the environment where it trains a broad variety of students to address the science and policy issues facing environment. The author stresses that schools like the Nicholas School have an enormous impact on the quality of the environment in the United States. In the process of training environmental professionals, it is critical for schools like the Nicholas School to forge strong ties to other professional schools, especially medicine and business. As the population continues to grow, never has there been a greater need for broad-based and interdisciplinary environmental education. The Nicholas School and similar programs are poised to deliver that training to the broadest array of bright and committed students.

During Earth Science Week (October 8-14, 2006), millions of citizen scientists worldwide will be sampling groundwater, monitoring weather, touring quarries, exploring caves, preparing competition projects, and visiting museums and science centers to learn about Earth science. The American Geological Institute organizes this annual event to encourage better understanding of the Earth sciences and stewardship of the planet. Guided by this year's theme, Be a Citizen Scientist!, Earth Science Week 2006 activities will engage students in real research and help spread science literacy among ordinary citizens. One way to engage students in real research is through "EarthCache EventCache," organized by The Geological Society of America, a major event partner. This activity involves geocachers across the United States who will visit geological outcrops, fossil and mineral collecting sites, relevant college departments, and state geological surveys. Earth Science Week offers opportunities for students to expand their knowledge and skills by conducting scientific investigations, making observations, analyzing data, testing predictions, drawing conclusions, and contributing to the scientific process.

Students live in a world that is powered by petroleum and other energy resources to an unsurpassed degree. The United States today consumes more than 24% of all the energy used in the world--and about 60% of this energy is provided by petroleum (oil and natural gas). The availability of abundant, inexpensive energy is the main reason that the nation's standard of living leads the world. But it is necessary that students should understand environmental issues and concerns accompany both the production and consumption of petroleum. To help students explore this topic further, the authors have developed the poster insert in this article. The poster is distributed with "Petroleum and the Environment," part of the American Geological Institute's Environmental Awareness series of booklets covering major topics of environmental and societal concern and demonstrating the complexity and interconnection of natural systems. "Petroleum and the Environment" provides an introduction to the major environmental concerns associated with petroleum exploration, production, transportation, and use. If today's students are to have a role in decisions to meet the energy demands of tomorrow, they must understand petroleum's importance, its sources, how it is processed and used, the policies and regulations designed to safeguard natural resources, and global energy needs.

In November 2000, wild Atlantic salmon were placed under the protection of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. Washington Academy (WA) in Maine has played an integral role in the education and restoration of this species. Efforts to restore the salmon's dwindling population, enhance critical habitat areas, and educate and inform the public require WA to collaborate with local watershed councils. These include the University of Maine at Machias (UMM); state and federal governmental agencies; and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) such as Project Salmon Habitat and River Enhancement (SHARE), the Atlantic Salmon Federation, and the Downeast Salmon Federation. For the past 10 years WA students have participated in the "Salmon in the Schools Program", sponsored by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery in East Orland, Maine. In addition to releasing salmon fry into the headwaters of the East Machias River, students perform physical, chemical, and biological analysis of the river. Students measure temperature, pH, alkalinity, phosphates, nitrates, dissolved oxygen, and biological oxygen demand. Students also assess water quality by surveying for macroinvertebrate biodiversity. They rely on personal knowledge, interviews, and maps to assess land uses within the watershed and identify nonpoint sources of pollution. The entire collection of data is interpreted in relation to the habitat needs of the Atlantic salmon and summarized in a formal report. Test results indicate that pH, alkalinity, and at times temperature, are cause for concern.

Summarizes 1981-82 enrollment data on geoscience students from 460 United States and Canadian degree-granting college and university departments. Includes enrollment data for males and females, minorities, and geology students. Also includes numbers of bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees received. (JN)

Modeling dynamic geophysical phenomena is at the core of Earth and environmental studies. The geoscientific community relying mainly on physical representations may want to consider much deeper adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) instruments in the context of AI's global success and emergence of big Earth data. A new perspective of using hybrid physics‐AI approaches is a grand vision, but actualizing such approaches remains an open question in geoscience. This study develops a general approach to improving AI geoscientific awareness, wherein physical approaches such as temporal dynamic geoscientific models are included as special recurrent neural layers in a deep learning architecture. The illustrative case of runoff modeling across the conterminous United States demonstrates that the physics‐aware DL model has enhanced prediction accuracy, robust transferability, and good intelligence for inferring unobserved processes. This study represents a firm step toward realizing the vision of tackling Earth system challenges by physics‐AI integration. Plain Language Summary: Artificial intelligence (AI) learns and makes inferences from experience and resembles the way untaught humans learn. If scientists can manage to teach AI the physical rules of the world, the "educated" AI may be more intelligent in deductions. However, how to implant elements of physical representations into an AI system effectively and directly remains an open question. This study proposes a general framework and applicable solutions to this challenge in the context of Earth science. The novel framework has a specially structured design for an AI system to "memorize" physical rules behind system dynamics (i.e., how a geosystem evolves with time). Following this framework, we developed a hydrology‐aware deep learning model to simulate/predict runoff in 569 catchments across the conterminous United States. The results show that after "learning" a hydrologic model, the AI system has enhanced prediction accuracy and good intelligence to deal with unfamiliar regions and infer unobserved processes. The potential of AI for in‐depth information mining, in return, fills the knowledge gap existing in physical approaches. The symbiotic integration of physical approaches and deep learning represents a promising solution to improve AI system awareness of geoscience knowledge. Key Points: A novel approach to representing geosystem dynamics via a recurrent neural network within deep learning architectures is proposedThe physics‐aware AI system exhibits robust transferability and good intelligence for inferring unobserved processes in runoff modelingThe hydrology‐aware DL model can be an intelligent parameterization module for the encoded hydrologic model in cross‐region applications [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines geology LibGuides from forty different U.S. academic institutions. It includes schools granting master's degrees, bachelor's degrees, and associate's degrees, as well as some offering geology courses only. Data on LibGuide structure, as well as databases, books, journals, websites, cartographic resources and instructional videos recommended within these LibGuides, are presented. Subtopics of geology covered by LibGuide pages and linked resources are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This commentary paper focuses upon the loss of respect for Earth Sciences on the part of many school districts across the United States. Too many Earth Science teachers are uncertified to teach Earth Science, or hold certificates to teach the subject merely because they took a test. The Earth Sciences have faced this problem for many years (Nuhfer, 1990). In 1996, the National Science Education Standards (National Resource Council) put Earth Science on equal footing with both the life and physical sciences, but after middle school, many high school students do not even have a chance to take an Earth Science course because their schools do not deem Earth Science as worthy or even as a necessary science. This is echoed by many colleges and universities when they do not accept Earth Science as a science unit for entrance. This must change! With the Next Generation Science Standards (Achieve, 2012) on the horizon, educators from kindergarten to the university level must make a strategic effort to put Earth Science! [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: NASA research programs offer many opportunities for productive partnerships with investigators in other countries. While spacecraft projects are complex and very expensive, there are other, lower-cost partnerships that can yield important scientific results and offer excellent opportunities for building up new space and Earth science programs and for training new researchers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Earth scientists use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enable measurements and observations that cannot be collected by manned aircraft such as the ER-2, DC-8 or B-200. Science community interest in UAVs to date has largely been focused on the larger class of UAV such as the Global Hawk and Predator, because of the large mass of legacy airborne science instruments. With the continued miniaturization of instruments and data systems and the rapid pace of development of all classes of UAV world-wide during the past decade, smaller classes of UAV are now capable of providing important science measurements and observations. Small (<50 lbs GTOW) and medium-class UAV (>500 lbs GTOW) complement the larger platforms by enabling in situ measurements of the atmospheric boundary layer with low-altitude remote sensing or air sampling, while providing a relatively low cost platform for storm penetration and dangerous, remote missions where the system may not return. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research Aircraft (SIERRA) project at the Ames Research Center (ARC) has demonstrated the utility of a medium class unmanned aircraft for providing science measurements in remote and dangerous environments using active, passive and in situ earth science instrument payloads. This article describes the SIERRA project, details past and future missions, and discusses the primary requirements for small and medium class UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of the Internet and evolutionary advances in geospatial data browsers, virtual globes, and immersive visualization displays have significantly increased the potential for a more climate science literate public. At the same time, space-based Earth-observing agencies like NASA and NOAA in the United States have geometrically increased the volume of data they collect everyday over the entire globe. Fortunately, Moore's Law held true during that same time span, so that the processing capacity of modern computers has exponentially increased, enabling scientists to collect, process, and share these data with increasing efficiency and turnaround time. Since 1980, the combination of these technologies has substantially increased public access to cutting-edge climate science data and information. But has there been a corresponding increase in public climate science literacy? Has there also been a corresponding improvement in public attitudes and opinions about climate science research? In this paper, we review current research about public awareness, understanding, and opinions about existing climate research. We also review several initiatives that our agencies (NASA and NOAA) have taken to help improve climate science literacy. Our research coincides with others' findings in, suggesting that it is possible to improve climate science literacy and positive attitudes about modern climate research, via particular methods of communication. We conclude with a call for collaborators to work with NASA and NOAA in the assembly of a "synergetic" new climate science communications and education infrastructure, as articulated by the late R. Buckminster Fuller, in which the whole works together much more effectively than the sum of the individual parts. We argue that the inherent difficulty of improving public climate science literacy, much less addressing the problems that stem from illiteracy and negative attitudes toward climate science, render the problem too great for any one agency or effort to tackle alone. Addressing the problem synergistically through transdisciplinary collaborations increases the potential for success while enriching all those involved in climate literacy efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]