Athol: Introduction to the Ice Age Floods and the National Geologic Trail
2026-06-12 13:00 - 14:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Athol Library, 30399 3rd St, Athol, ID, 83801
Details to come.
Presented by Don Chadbourne, geologist and board member of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter
Registration is required. It will be linked here as soon as it has been posted to the library website. https://communitylibrary.net/library/athol/

Harrison: Introduction to the Ice Age Floods and the National Geologic Trail
2026-06-16 16:30 - 18:00 | Harrison Library, 111 S Coeur d’Alene Avenue, Harrison, ID, 83833
Details to come.
Presented by Don Chadbourne, geologist and board member of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter
Registration is required. It will be linked here as soon as it has been posted to the library website. https://communitylibrary.net/library/harrison/

Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators - Richland, WA
2026-06-22 09:00 - 16:00 | The Reach Museum, 1943 Columbia Park Trl , WA, Richland, WA, 99352, United States
Every student in the Northwest should experience the incredible science story of the megafloods that shaped our landscape and history. To help bring this story to life, the Ice Age Floods Institute, Engaging Every Student, and our partners are excited to invite K–12 educators to free special training events. Thanks to support from the Avista Foundation, we are offering free hybrid workshops where you will gain access to valuable resources designed to inspire students to investigate their local environment.
New Curriculum Resources
Participants will explore a new Ice Age Floods Detectives phenomena-based curriculum with supporting presentations targeted to 4th grade, as well as hands-on investigations from the National Park Service’s Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum. Both explore the megafloods that shaped the Northwest and are adaptable for grades K–12
Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators Details (In-person with options to join us via Zoom):

Location:

Richland, WA: Mon., June 22, 2026 (register here: tinyurl.com/zbrhtpht)

Featuring:

Engaging classroom and field-based activities, including exciting ways to model Floods phenomena
Stories of the megafloods that transformed the Northwest 18,000–12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period
Up to 7 Washington STEM Clock Hours and/or PDUs for license renewal in Oregon and other states

Schedule: All workshops 9:00 am–4:00 pm (or half day)

9:00–12:00 | Interactive workshop featuring new Ice Age Floods Discovery curriculum: targeted to grade 4 and adaptable for K–12
12–12:30 | Working lunch (provided)
12:30–3:30 | Interactive workshop featuring Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum adaptable for grades K–12
3:00 or 3:30–4:00 | Nearby interpretive field studies with experts

Cost:

Free
Ice Age Floods Institute mini-Grants available

To cover materials, transportation, STEM clock hour fee, etc.
Learn more: iafi.org/k-12grants.

Help Spread the Word: We encourage you to share this informative Ice Age Floods Workshops flyer with other educators to let them know about this opportunity!
For questions, comments, or ideas on where we might offer additional training, please contact Rick Reynolds, M.S.Ed., at rick@engagingeverystudent.com. Thanks for your interest and all you do to inspire our students to investigate our environment!

Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators - Spokane, WA
2026-06-24 09:00 - 16:00 | Shadle Park Library Maker Studio, 2111 W. Wellesley Ave., Spokane, WA, United States
Every student in the Northwest should experience the incredible science story of the megafloods that shaped our landscape and history. To help bring this story to life, the Ice Age Floods Institute, Engaging Every Student, and our partners are excited to invite K–12 educators to free special training events. Thanks to support from the Avista Foundation, we are offering free hybrid workshops where you will gain access to valuable resources designed to inspire students to investigate their local environment.
New Curriculum Resources
Participants will explore a new Ice Age Floods Detectives phenomena-based curriculum with supporting presentations targeted to 4th grade, as well as hands-on investigations from the National Park Service’s Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum. Both explore the megafloods that shaped the Northwest and are adaptable for grades K–12
Free STEAM Workshops for K–12 Educators Details (In-person with options to join us via Zoom):

Location:

Spokane, WA: Mon., June 24, 2026 (register here: tinyurl.com/y78vcde9)

Featuring:

Engaging classroom and field-based activities, including exciting ways to model Floods phenomena
Stories of the megafloods that transformed the Northwest 18,000–12,000 years ago at the end of the Last Glacial Period
Up to 7 Washington STEM Clock Hours and/or PDUs for license renewal in Oregon and other states

Schedule: All workshops 9:00 am–4:00 pm (or half day)

9:00–12:00 | Interactive workshop featuring new Ice Age Floods Discovery curriculum: targeted to grade 4 and adaptable for K–12
12–12:30 | Working lunch (provided)
12:30–3:30 | Interactive workshop featuring Investigating Ice Age Floods curriculum adaptable for grades K–12
3:00 or 3:30–4:00 | Nearby interpretive field studies with experts

Cost:

Free
Ice Age Floods Institute mini-Grants available

To cover materials, transportation, STEM clock hour fee, etc.
Learn more: iafi.org/k-12grants.

Help Spread the Word: We encourage you to share this informative Ice Age Floods Workshops flyer with other educators to let them know about this opportunity!
For questions, comments, or ideas on where we might offer additional training, please contact Rick Reynolds, M.S.Ed., at rick@engagingeverystudent.com. Thanks for your interest and all you do to inspire our students to investigate our environment!

Hayden: Dating Erratic Boulders: How Long Ago Were the Floods?
2026-07-07 13:00 - 13:30 | Hayden Library, 8385 N Government Wy, Hayden Lake, ID, 83835
How do geologists know when the ice age floods actually occurred in the Spokane area? One method is to date the large flood-rafted erratic boulders. We explore the ages of the floods and the methods used to determine their dates and present newly gathered dates from the Spokane region revealing when the floods happened.
Presented by Glenn Cruickshank, vice president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter, and Dr. Jim O’Connor, USGS
Registration is required. It will be linked here as soon as it has been posted to the library website.

Rathdrum: Dating Erratic Boulders: How Long Ago Were the Floods?
2026-07-14 15:00 - 16:30 | Rathdrum Library, 16320 ID-41, Rathdrum, ID, 83858
How do geologists know when the ice age floods actually occurred in the Spokane area? One method is to date the large flood-rafted erratic boulders. We explore the ages of the floods and the methods used to determine their dates and present newly gathered dates from the Spokane region revealing when the floods happened.
Presented by Glenn Cruickshank, vice president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter
Registration is required. It will be linked here as soon as it has been posted to the library website.

Spirit Lake: The Ice Age Missoula floods and the Spirit Lake giant current dune field
2026-07-21 13:00 - 14:30 | Spirit Lake Library, 32575 N 5th Ave, Spirit Lake, ID, 83869
Giant Current Dunes or MegaRipple Marks – One of Bretz’ most important pieces of evidence for catastrophic flooding was the “giant current dunes.” These large-scale bedforms appeared as patterns of parallel ridges and swales on many aerial photographs in the flood channels in the scabland of Washington, but had escaped recognition from the ground because of their size.
Giant Current Dunes are visible west of Clark Fork near Castle Rock; however, the most prominent and visible Giant Current Dunes are located several miles east of Spirit Lake along Hwy 54 where the highway cuts through the dunes showing their undulating profile. The location of many of the telephone poles on the crest of these dunes accentuates these landforms. The dunes form transverse to the current direction, and form cusps that are convex upstream, with arms that point downstream. Furthermore, the size of the cusps appears to decrease in the direction of lower velocity. Internally, the dunes consist of gravel and pebble foresets.
Giant current dunes exhibit an asymmetrical profile with the downstream (lee) slope steeper than the upstream slope. Crests range from 20 to 200m apart and heights range from 1 to 15m (Baker and Nummedal, 1978) and are among the largest measured throughout the Floods area. The Spirit Lake current dunes can also be easily recognized from the air by their characteristic pattern, accentuated by vegetation. This dune field is immediately in the path of the breakout from Lake Pend Oreille, and experienced some of the highest energy flows.
Presented by Dr. Linda McCollum, president of the Ice Age Floods Institute (IAFI), Cheney-Spokane Chapter
Registration is required. It will be linked here as soon as it has been posted to the library website (https://communitylibrary.net/library/spirit-lake/).

Bretz Was Right: A Pre‑Birthday Floods‑Fest
2026-08-29 10:00 - 14:00 | WA
Save the date!
Our chapter is planning a special late‑summer gathering on Saturday, August 29, in honor of J Harlen Bretz, whose birthday falls just a few days later (September 2). Bretz’s groundbreaking work on the Ice Age floods reshaped the scientific understanding of the Northwest—and we think that deserves a celebration.
We’re still shaping the details, but expect a relaxed, community‑friendly event that highlights Bretz’s legacy and the remarkable landscapes he helped the world understand. More information will be posted as plans develop.

He mapped the scablands bold and bright,
Said “Floods did this!” with all his might.
For thirty years they told him “No”…
’Til evidence began to flow.
So join us as we celebrate
The man who made the floods make sense —
A pre‑birthday bash for J Harlen Bretz,
Who proved the skeptics wrong (immense!).

Mysteries of the Channeled Scablands and the two Detectives who Solved it.
2026-09-01 19:00 - 20:00 | Richland Library, 955 Northgate Dr., Richland, Washington, 99352
Giant Pothole near Washtucna, WA
Over 100 years ago, scientists discovered the unique landscape of the Channeled Scablands of Washington. By studying clues in Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, two of them pieced together the evidence that led to their conclusion which was scoffed at by many of their colleagues. After more than 20 years of field study and overwhelming evidence, most of the scientific community finally agreed with them.
See how today, new detectives are in the field with new technologies to unravel more of the mysteries of the Channeled Scablands.
Lloyd Stoess, President of the Palouse Fall Chapter of the IAFI, will show pictures and explain the evidence of the enormous Missoula Floods that carved our landscape.
