The national headquarters of the United States Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia, recently provided a scenic and historical backdrop for the fourth annual meeting for the Coalition for Earth Science Education.

SCEC Outreach has selected the permanent members of the Development of Earth Science Curricula (DESC) Online Advisory Group. This group will be responsible for guiding the continuing development of the SCEC education modules with the aim of making them useful and available to classrooms nationwide.

SCEC Outreach recently announced the release of both education modules (regional seismicity and GPS) in "beta" version. They are available through links from the SCEC Webservice; however, they are recommended solely for "trial runs" in the classroom.

The SCEC Crustal Deformation Working Group (Group E) recently announced the availability of a new version of the Crustal Deformation Velocity Map for southern California.

"The SCIGN Project," a recent report submitted to the NSF, is also now available in full on the Web at: http://www.scign.org/ari/

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (OES) have announced a grant of $5.2 million to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) for a three-year multi-university project to reduce damage and losses to woodframe construction in future earthquakes. The project concept originated following the 1994 Northridge Earthquake, in which approximately half of the property losses were incurred by damage to woodframe construction. Professor John Hall of Caltech will be the Project Manager; the multi-university, consulting engineering, and other tasks in the project are carried out under subcontract to California Universities for Research in Earthquake Engineering (CUREe). The project's official title is "Earthquake Hazard Reduction of Woodframe Construction."

On July 1, SCEC outreach specialists Mark Benthien and Sara Tekula gave a "Careers in Science" presentation for high school students at the new California Science Center's K-12 Summer Science Camp program.

In May and June, the SCEC Outreach Program sponsored two full-day workshops to bring together educators so that they could evaluate and advise on the development of earth science educa-tion modules in progress.

On Friday, September 18, 1998, SCEC and the Urban Security Group of the Los Alamos National Laboratory will sponsor a half-day workshop focusing on a multidisciplinary master model of seismic hazards in southern California. The session, held from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Pasadena Holiday Inn, will follow the annual meeting of the Western States Seismic Policy Council.

In July, the Education and Outreach Program the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) sponsored a workshop entitled "Seismology Software for the Classroom: a Workshop for Developers and Users." The workshop served as a promotional tool for the development of educational seismology software for the undergraduates.

The SCEC Web site (WWW.SCEC.ORG) is undergoing a major renova-tion. Several sections have been added or expanded to include more information. The cosmetic renovation is complete; however the site is and will be constantly updated. Recent additions include:

On April 21 over 60 scientists attended a seminar at UCLA, sponsored by SCEC and the USGS, to review the current state of knowledge on the deep structure of the Los Angeles Region, how previous phases of LARSE (L.A. Region Seismic Experiment) have contributed to this knowledge, and how the next phase ("LARSE II") will contibute more data for study.

Las Vegas, a city well known for lively entertainment, became a city filled with lively science teachers between April 16 and 19. The Las Vegas Hilton and the Las Vegas Convention Center served as headquarters for the 46 th Annual National Conference of the National Science Teachers Association.

On May 1, 1998, Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research (PEER) hosted a meeting on its Education Program. SCEC's Outreach Team reported on its education program and activities, especially changes that have taken place at SCEC in the past few months.

A short course for geotechnical professionals on evaluation and mitigation of seismic hazards associated with slope instability and soil liquefaction was held in Los Angeles in January. The California Division of Mines and Geology, in partnership with SCEC and UC Berkeley's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, sponsored the event.

On May 4, 1998, SCEC representatives presented Web-based instructional modules to a convention of community college educators. The event was the Community College Foundation's Technology in Education Conference in Santa Clara, California.

Over the past year, the Los Angeles area Adams-Normandie Neighborhood Association (ANNA) has partnered with the Southern California Earthquake Center to elevate earthquake awareness and preparedness on a communitywide scale. The partners developed a model program for seismic safety to create a culture of sustainable, uniform community preparedness for a damaging urban earthquake. The partners believe the model can be cost-effectively replicated in vulnerable neighborhoods anywhere.

An earthquake fault that runs under Dodger Stadium, Central Library and thousands of buildings could create more havoc than the 1994 Northridge quake that killed 72 people and caused $25 billion in damage...

Los Angeles' community television station, KTLA Channel 5, has launched its "Care and Prepare" Earthquake Preparedness Campaign in partnership with the Southern California Earthquake Center and several corporate sponsors, including McDonald's, Toyota, Sparkletts Water, Sprint PCS and Blockbuster video store.

Recent reports on television, radio, and in newspapers in Los Angeles have dealt with a so-called "earthquake deficit" in southern California. This issue has its origins in a 1995 technical report published by the Southern California Earthquake Center and authored by a Working Group on California Earthquake Probabilities. We would like to explain the issue and where things stand at the present time.

Mark Benthien, new coordinator of SCEC's Summer Internship Program, recently announced the opening of the application process for 1998. The internship program provides opportunities for undergraduate students at SCEC institutions and other southern California colleges to work with SCEC scientists on earthquake-related science. The program has three major goals:

The Southern California Integrated GPS Network (SCIGN), SCEC's new crustal deformation initiative, is in the process of permitting over 100 new sites. Thirty-two schools and colleges that have responded positively to requests to install GPS stations on their campuses. A little under a dozen schools (such as Fremont High School and Windsor Magnet School) are in the Los Angeles Unified School District and have greatly helped our efforts to increase the density of the network in much of the L.A. basin.

Geodesist Ken Hudnut (USGS and SCEC) and Engineering Geologist Scott Lindvall (William Lettis & Associates, Inc., and SCEC) led a field trip for La Cañada High School students to the Sierra Madre fault zone on March 13, 1998. Participating students are enrolled in "Seismology Institute," a component of the La Cañada High School's "Institutes for the 21st Century." The Institutes program is unique, involving scientists and professionals from neighboring communities in curriculum-enhancing activities that help students learn through field and hands-on experiences.

The SCEC Board of Directors met in late January and voted to add the University of Nevada at Reno and San Diego State University as core institutions. We welcome new board representatives John Anderson (UNR) and Tom Rockwell (SDSU).