During the 1980s, Carruthers helped create the Science & Engineers Apprentice Program, which allows high school students to spend a summer working with scientists at the Naval Research Laboratory. Carruthers also worked with the Naval Research Laboratory's community outreach organization, and as such helped support several educational activities in the sciences in the Washington D.C. area. During the summers of 1996 and 1997 he taught a course in earth and space science for D.C. public schools science teachers. He also helped develop a series of videotapes on earth and space science for high-school students.