The Global Earthquake Exploration Project (Project GEE) seeks to tap into an archive of seismological data for K-16 education and outreach to the general public. Project GEE will capitalize on an IT infrastructure being developed for the research seismology community to deliver near real-time earthquake data in a variety of useful formats and venues in order to maximize this data's value to the education community. Utilization of near-real time observations of our natural environment is an exciting new frontier for Earth science education and the general public. A major challenge of utilizing research-oriented data sources is effectively encapsulating it in a form that is easily understood and manipulated by interested, but inexperienced learners. Project GEE's primary products will be: (1) The Rapid Earthquake Viewers (REV). Web browser access for curiosity driven users and educators seeking to seize "teachable moments" associated with newsworthy earthquakes; (2) The Global Earthquake Explorer (GEE). Enhancement of an existing standalone application that allows for more flexible exploration of earthquake data than REV, but is sufficiently similar to allow interested users to easily move between GEE and REV; (3) The Module Creation Kit (MCK). A unique tool in the educational software arena, the MCK will allow individual educators to easily create and share structured learning modules inspired by their own ideas about the best way to convey educational concepts with GEE. This project is a collaborative effort between the University of South Carolina (USC), the DLESE (Digital Library for Earth System Education) Program Center (DPC) at UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), and IRIS (Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology). It leverages recent experiences and developments at these three institutions to create an integrated IT framework to provide broad access to global earthquake data.
