Activities

EarthDate is a public service radio program and accompanying website with a mission to engage listeners in Earth science and connect them to the wonders of their world. Each EarthDate radio episode tells a captivating two-minute story that reminds listeners how science can enlighten, educate, and entertain. Every topic is accompanied by an article, educational PDFs for classroom or home use, and links to further reading on the EarthDate website. EarthDate was conceived of and is hosted by Dr. Scott W. Tinker, Director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin. Each episode is written and directed by Emmy-winning filmmaker Harry Lynch and researched by Juli Hennings, a career geoscientist.

In this series of short videos, you’ll meet members of the main groups of invertebrates that live in the ocean—anemones, corals, snails, shrimp, crabs, sea stars and sea urchins. And just for fun, you’ll also meet some of the most popular vertebrates on the 40 Acres: residents of the UT Turtle Pond.

Learn about nurdles, tiny plastic pellets that frequently turn up along the Texas coast and endanger wildlife, from whales to sea turtles. Jace Tunnell, Director of the Mission-Aransas National Estuarine Research Reserve, will also tell you how you can help by doing a nurdle survey and reporting your findings.