DLESE description of Earth Science Literacy Principles Guide

The Earth Science Literacy Initiative (ESLI), funded by the National Science Foundation, has gathered and codified the underlying understandings of Earth sciences into a succinct document that will have broad-reaching applications in both public and private arenas. It establishes the "Big Ideas" and supporting concepts that all Americans should know about Earth sciences. The primary outcome of the Earth Science Literacy Initiative is a community-based document that clearly and succinctly states the underlying principles and ideas of Earth science across a wide variety of research fields that are funded through the NSF-EAR program, including Geobiology and Low-Temperature Geochemistry, Geomorphology and Land-Use Dynamics, Geophysics, Hydrologic Sciences, Petrology and Geochemistry, Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology, and Tectonics.