Education

The CASC network has supported over 200 students and early-career scientists through 10+ fellowship and training programs. Participants conduct groundbreaking research on climate change impacts and adaptation, develop skills in science communication and partner engagement, and build networks of peers and mentors to support future career development.

Regional CASCs develop training programs to provide working professionals with the appropriate knowledge and skills they need to make climate-informed decisions, centered around the specific climate and resource management challenges of their regions.

The USGS and the CASC network support a wide range of K-12 educational materials teaching about climate change impacts and climate adaptation strategies. Find resources for place-based lesson plans, data tools, climate illustrations, etc. in the links below. Stay tuned - more resources are always in development!

USGS is asking citizen scientists for help in better understanding turtle and tortoise populations throughout the Southeast United States.

Grizzly bear were nearly extirpated in the U.S. in recent centuries. Today, 4 populations are recovering in the U.S. Northern Rockies. Population connectivity is a conservation goal, as is reestablishing a population in the Bitterroot Ecosystem (Central Idaho and Western Montana).

The Topeka Shiner is federally endangered and has experienced drastic reductions in its distribution. In Missouri, the Topeka Shiner has undergone a drastic reduction in distributional range over the last half century, leaving few remaining known populations.

In April of 2023 a citizen science invitation began asking people to mail in already deceased insects in the order Lepidoptera to help establish a USGS Research Scientific Collection. The collection will enable USGS scientists to have specimens from various regional areas to be able to identify contaminants and environmental factors which could be contributing to the decline of insect populations.

Wildland fire is a natural part of ecosystems but has increased significantly in the western United States over the past two decades. This lesson introduces the basics of fire science and explores how wildland fire affects different types of ecosystems. This series of lessons is intended for grades 6-12 and is aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series, a whiteboard animation video series highlighting USGS careers. The concept is to show whimsically "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." Here we have Volcanologist, someone who studies volcanoes and eruptions.

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series, a whiteboard animation video series highlighting USGS careers. The concept is to show whimsically "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." Here we have Disease Ecologist, someone who studies patterns of disease within plant or animal populations.

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series, a whiteboard animation video series highlighting USGS careers. The concept is to show whimsically "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." This video is about a natural resource economist (i.e. someone who studies the value of features in the natural world).

Welcome to the "The I Am A..." series. This is the tenth video in a series of USGS whiteboard animations that highlight USGS careers. The concept is to show "what society (or my mom) thinks I do" compared with "what I really do." One image captures a more whimsical representation of a "scientist" and the second demonstrates a more accurate representation of