A Model of an Integrated Research and Education Program in Space Weather at a Community College
A Model of an Integrated Research and Education Program in Space Weather at a Community College
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DOI：
10.1029/2019sw002307
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发表时间：
2020-01-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Mohamed, A.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Damas, M. C.;Ngwira, C. M.;Mohamed, A.
社区学院提供了一个很好的机会，使空间科学或其他科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域多样化，因为他们的学生人数众多。然而，由于社区学院的主要使命是教学，因此在支持本科生研究培训和促进本科生研究机会方面存在挑战。本科研究经历是领先的高影响力实践（HIP）之一，鼓励学生追求STEM专业，研究生学位和职业生涯。空间气象为本科生参与现实世界的研究提供了机会，因为可以在开放式数据储存库中获取空间使命数据集。空间天气对地球的地球空间环境，生活和社会的影响也提供了一个令人信服的现实世界的钩，让学生参与有一些影响的活动，包括（1）长期整合空间天气到本科课程;（2）在分析大型地球空间数据集的经验，这增加了学生的计算，批判性思维和分析技能，对任何职业都有用;（3）提高学生学习STEM的兴趣和动力，并为他们选择空间科学及相关领域的职业道路做好准备。下面介绍的模型有可能提高社区大学学生四年制STEM课程的保留率，毕业率和转学率，并增加空间科学和其他相关STEM领域的代表性和包容性。
Community Colleges provide a great opportunity to diversify the space sciences or other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields due to their large population of underrepresented students. However, since the primary mission of community colleges is teaching, there is a challenge to support undergraduate research training and promote undergraduate research opportunities. Undergraduate research experiences are one of the leading high-impact practices (HIPs) to encourage students to pursue STEM majors, graduate degrees, and careers. Space weather provides the opportunity to engage undergraduate students in real-world research due to the accessibility of space mission data sets within open access data repositories. Space weather's impact on Earth's geospace environment, life, and society also provides a compelling real-world hook to engage students in activities that have a number of impacts including (1) long-term integration of space weather into the undergraduate curricula; (2) experience in analyzing large geospace data sets, which increases students' computational, critical thinking, and analytical skills, useful for any career; and (3) increase in students' interest in and motivation to study STEM, as well as preparing them for choosing a career path in space science and related fields. The model presented below has the potential to increase the retention, graduation, and transfer rate of community college students to four-year STEM programs, as well as increase representation and inclusion in space sciences and other related STEM fields.