Enhancing Diversity Track 2: Intensive Field Experience in Northern Illinois and Central Mexico for Middle and High School Teachers Serving Large Hispanic Populations

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The primary objective of this project is to encourage Hispanic participation and enrollment in the geosciences, thereby ultimately enhancing diversity within the discipline. To achieve this goal, middle and high school science teachers serving large Hispanic populations will be recruited for a series of three two-year programs, each of which will center on paid field experiences in Northern Illinois and in Mexico. The fieldwork in Mexico will expose the teachers to a geologic and social environment outside of their community where they can interact with a diverse group of scientists from either the Universidad National Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM) or Centro para el Estudio del Agua del Centro de Investigacion Cientifica de Yucatan (CEA-CICY). While in Mexico, the participants will visit classrooms and spend a day with their counterparts in both middle and high Mexican Partnership Schools. The field experience will be followed by school visitations, regularly scheduled workshops, a summer course and culminate in an international conference of middle and high school educators to be held in the greater Chicago area. Over the course of the five-year grant period, it is expected that three cohorts of 10-12 teachers will be shepherded through the program.