Hands-On Geology: Jennifer Peña Is Taking Students From Classrooms to Canyons!

Jennifer Peña, former GeoForce student and now an outreach coordinator, gives us the inside scoop on how the program has evolved, and why it’s still rocking today. From the days of quizzes galore to the current project-based fun, Jennifer shares how GeoForce has learned to keep things fresh, exciting, and way less stressful. She walks us through the 10th-grade academy, where students build canyons out of Play-Doh (yep, you read that right) and get up close with geology in places like Antelope Canyon and the Grand Canyon while using the scientific methods!

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Transcript

GeoForce Program Evolution

[00:26:01] Diya Gaur: So, also, like, As a previous GeoForce student yourself and now like an outreach coordinator for GeoForce, how do you think like the program has like kind of changed from then versus now? 

[00:26:13] Jennifer Peña: I feel like then, also just in the way kind of society was then whenever I was doing it, especially on things like test taking, quiz taking, all of that sort of thing.

Whenever I was in the program, every single day we had quizzes. So at the end of every single academy, we would have a quiz, and at the end, like on that last day, we would have a final. It was intense! It was very much Even though, in all honesty, do I think GeoForce would have kicked out half of the kids?

No. Do I also think half of the kids would be failing the GeoForce test? No. We were all nerds, and we were all very, like, worried and anxious people. Or little kids. So, I think we were fine. But it was still, it made us very anxious a little bit, and so seeing now this change to more so a project based, um, curriculum is really great, just because it then gives you guys the tools to work together as teams when it's something like the 9th grade, so now we do a 9th grade project at the end of it, where they work as, like, counselor groups or mini counselor groups, So that's really great, or in things like the 10th grade, wherever you guys do a project, and you do, you model a canyon by yourself, so it gives you that create, creativity, and that space to do what, what you would like to do, but also connect it to education, and connect it to what you've been learning throughout the week.

So to see that change has been really great. Also, I I really like the 12th grade now, even though I will say whenever I was doing the 12th grade, it being the first one in Austin. And not, um, D. C., which it used to be. It was, it was sad, you know? They had been promising us, oh, on your last year, you're gonna go to Washington, D.

C., and it'll be really fun. And at that point, we had traveled every single year, because whenever I was doing the program, the ninth grade was in Florida. And so we had been traveling every single year, so this last year being in Austin was kind of, kind of a downer a little bit for some of us. Um, but being in Austin then made us kind of want to go to UT and realize how interesting it is.

So that was a really good change that they made whenever I was in the program. But the fact that now we give you guys these, like, tangible skills at the end of it, and really want you to gain something from GeoForce, whether it be geology or not, is really cool. Um, so just these STEM kind of points and these really good skills that you can use regardless of if you go to the Jackson School or if you study geology.

I've seen that change in the program and I've really, really enjoyed it. 

[00:29:08] Diya Gaur: That is amazing. 

10th Grade Academy Highlights

[00:29:11] Diya Gaur: So you did mention the 10th grade, like, canyon modeling project, we, I remember doing t