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APPLY NOW   Public Land Name: John Day Fossil Beds National Monument Position Title: Paleontology/Geology Interpretation Specialist Agency: NPS Position Type: GeoCorps Position ID Number: 2015037 Location: Kimberly, OR Accepting Applications? # of current Applicants: 0 Position Description: The interpretive specialist is expected to explain complex scientific concepts to the public in an understandable, meaningful, and engaging way one-on-one or to groups in a busy paleontology museum setting to curious visitors. The Thomas Condon Paleontology Center at the Sheep Rock Unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument near Dayville, OR, will serve as the office. The monument is an ideal place to interpret paleontology, geology, evolution, and climate change. Over 40 million years of life is preserved in these fossil beds and actively researched. The fossil beds tell the story of ancient ecosystem changes and species’ emergence, evolution, and extinction as the environment changed from semi-tropical forests on a warm marine margin to a dry, cold, inland steppe semi-desert. The internship has two components. The first is resource interpretation and visitor service. The intern will learn what an interpretive ranger does on a daily basis. Approximately half of the internship will be spent in a frontline ranger role. The intern will be expected to provide visitor service such as answering questions about paleontology and geology, area recreation, and regional travel. The intern will also individually research, develop, and present a 10-15 minute porch talk. The talk will be presented several times each week to audiences from 10-50 people. The second component of the internship is the project. The intern will continue the work of previous GeoCorp interns to build out the paleontology and geology sections of the park website. Please note that the National Park Service uses a contractor to manage programming and design, thus no webpage coding or design skills are needed. There are two website development themes for the summer of 2015. The first is to create pages that explore the history of eastern Oregon paleontology. The 150 year story involves some of the most well-known paleontologists including Cope, Marsh, and Merriam. This story is already researched and the information is easily available in the park library but it is fragmented amongst a wide variety of sources. The participant will be expected to become familiar with this material and distill out the key individuals, their adventures, mishaps, and major research contributions. The participant will develop a web-appropriate narrative and upload the content. The second area of growth for the website is a new subject addressing paleoclimate changes and how that impacted species over time and how it relates to current climate changes. Participants will also have the opportunity to join the paleontology research staff for a few day-long field trips to learn how to prospect for, protect, and collect fossils. The intern will also participate in preparations for and help during the 40th anniversary of the monument’s establishment and the 150th anniversary of paleontology in Oregon. This will be a day-long event. If you have questions about the application and selection process, please contact GSA's GeoCorps managers.  If you have questions about any aspect of the position — description, qualifications, housing, dates — please direct them to the contact(s) listed in the project description. Remember, application materials can only be submitted online. The project contact(s) will not accept application materials sent to them via e-mail, mail, fax, etc. See the full program details at the GeoCorps homepage.