Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs Officer This is the USGS Open House. We do this every
three years. We’ve been doing it since 1985. It’s a
really fun event
where we bring out all of the things we do, we pull
out all the stops. It’s like a big kids science fair.
Christy Ryan, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
And the goal is to get our science out to the public.
Typically we have about 10,000 visitors so we’re hoping
for that again this year. And they’re going to learn a
lot of things…earthquakes, volcanoes, geology, mapping,
water, a lot of different things.
Liz Colvard, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
Well it’s a very unique opportunity to come and speak
to all of our scientists. We have over 100 scientists
here at any one time and that’s very difficult to do,
normally, on a day to day basis. Our entire campus is
open and it’s just a unique opportunity to really get
an inside look at what the USGS does.
[Images of people arriving at the event]
Christy Ryan, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
Typically we people arrive at a welcome table.
And we have three positioned around campus. And they’re greeted by USGS employees.
They’re given a brochure, a map of the campus a list
of exhibits. This year we have over 115 exhibits so
there’s a lot to come and see. Some of the can’t miss
exhibits would be gold panning, uh that’s a crowd favorite.
We have an 8 foot tall volcano. There’s a paper
machete 25 foot long dinosaur. So there’s just a whole
lot to come and see and do, hands on activities.
Christy Ryan, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
A special thing we did this year which we haven’t done
before is we had a list of kid friendly exhibits. Those are marked with a goldstar balloon.
So, those are things,
if you only had a half hour to spend with us you could
just go to those exhibits and get the most out of the visit.
Dina Venezky, USGS Geologist It’s really exciting to see that light go
on in a child
when they really make a connection and understand what’s
going on. So, some of our exhibits talk about CO2,
CO2 is heavier than oxygen, they can actually see what’s
happening. Some of our exhibits have puzzles that the
kids put together. So they learn about the plates and
how they looked in the past. Some of our exhibits have
rock samples and so the kids actually get to see real rocks
from volcanoes. They get to have rocks that were just created.
Or they get to see sand that was formed from these volcanic rocks.
Liz Colvard, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
I think the scientists are all really amazed at how
interested even the really young children are when they
come here. And I have actually spoken to a professional
geologist who told me that he was first inspired when
he came to one of our open house’s as a child.
Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs Officer It’s a really fun time not only for our
visitors but I think our scientists and researchers have
a good time as well.
Because they get to share the work that they are doing and
talk about it why it’s important.
And the results that we’ve learned about the earth and
what kinds of problems we can solve with our science.
Chisty Ryan, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
We typically have an opening VIP ceremony, the first day
of our Open House. So, we had many VIP’s. Local Congress
people were here, Bob Doyle from Reston was out,
Anne Kinsinger from Seattle was here and then we had a school
preview day. So, we had about 1200 students here from schools
as far as Monterey and all over the Bay Area.
Leslie Gordon, USGS Public Affairs Officer “And this is one of those opportunities
where we can talk directly to the public. Tell them about
the
science research that we’re doing so that they’re a
more educated, literate citizenry and voters.
And I think that’s really important for government
to have that transparency.
Liz Colvard, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
It’s just so rewarding to see how many people come
and how much they enjoy it. Everybody walks out here
thanking us and telling us how much they enjoyed it
and how surprised they are to learn how much the
USGS actually does.
Chisty Ryan, Co-Chair Open House Planning Committee
“It’s just a great way to reach out to the community.
Show them what we’re doing and they take a lot away from it too.”