Members of the department ran three field trips for the 8th-grade Earth Science classes of Blacksburg Middle School to the Huckleberry Trail. These are the only field experience the students receive in their year-long Earth Science class. The trips successfully engaged nearly 200 middle-school students! Presenters and volunteers from the department included George Allen, Elizabeth Curtiss, Emily Ellis, Sam Haines, Rick Law, Esther Oyedele, Jonny Prouty, Rachel Reid, Adjunct Professor Karen Weber, and Jim Spotila.

The critical zone geophysics team, including Steve Holbrook, Sean Bemis, Denise Burgett, Ben Eppinger, and Anya Gupta, toured and sampled new excavations through the critical zone at the Boxley Quarry in Martinsville, VA.