To celebrate Earth Week, TCU’s Department of Geological Sciences has planned a fun event and open house in the Sid Richardson Atrium on April 20 from 2 – 5 p.m. featuring giveaways, interactive demonstrations, and food trucks.

Earth Day was founded in 1970 as a day of education about environmental issues. The holiday is now a global celebration that’s sometimes extended into Earth Week, a full seven days of events focused on green living and confronting the climate crisis. By raising public awareness of pollution, environmental causes are brought into the national spotlight.

Brooke Newell, president of TCU’s Environmental Club, says, “When most people think geology, they only think of rocks…but it is so much more than that. This event allows us to interact with the student population and show off the incredible diversity and variety of earth sciences at TCU. We have activities that range from fossils to augmented reality to minerals to GPS. We also have some exciting giveaways planned, including a $50 Amazon gift card grand prize.”

Omar Harvey, geology associate professor, says, “We as a faculty realized that a major challenge is that unlike with the other basic sciences (chemistry, biology and physics), students coming from high school to TCU are not exposed to geology in their K-12 curriculum…To address this, my colleagues, our students, and I have designed a set of intentional outreach strategies that gives our community a peek into our world. This is event is just the first of what we hope will be a series of annual events that grow in size and scope in coming years.”

Learn more about TCU’s Department of Geological Sciences.