Collaborative Project: The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics/Huston-Tillotson College Geosciences Diversity Project

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Track 1: UTIG/Huston-Tillotson Geosciences Diversity ProjectThis proof-of-concept project is establishing geoscience educational capability at Huston-Tillotson University (HT). It also addresses the critical need for pre-service minority teacher training using high quality, rigorous Earth science materials for high school level in Texas. The HT Pre-service Teacher Component of the project consists of preparation and delivery during the 2005-06 academic year of a special topics course in Geology, Meteorology, and Oceanography (GMO) that counts towards high-school teacher certification in Earth Science. This HT course prepares these pre-service teachers to instruct a high school GMO course, one of the subjects meeting the science requirements for high school graduation. The 9-12 Student Education Component of the project expands HT's Austin Prefreshman Engineering Program (AusPrEP), an ongoing immersive math/science summer program, to include a fourth year centered on the geosciences. Students in the fourth year of AusPrEP cover all of the high school GMO course and receive one high school science credit. Two of the HT undergraduate students who completed the Pre-Service Teacher Component work directly with the fourth year AusPrEP students as Program Assistants, providing mentoring and tutoring, as well as technical and laboratory assistance. This project increases the participation of African Americans and Hispanic Americans in the geosciences at both the high school student and teacher levels.