LaURGE - Louisiana Undergraduate Recruiting and Geoscience Education

位于巴吞鲁日的路易斯安那州立大学正在制定新的战略，让路易斯安那州的K-12学生接触地球科学教育和就业机会。 目前，只有约1%的路易斯安那州学生在高中地球科学，而大约99%的人采取生物学。这种缺乏接触地球科学在高中使得很难招聘和留住本科专业，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体。为了应对这一挑战，PI纳恩和共同研究员阿格纽正在开发高中生物和物理教师在路易斯安那州州立大学在巴吞鲁日，洛杉矶和百年学院在什里夫波特，洛杉矶量身定制的研讨会。 这两个研讨会开始与实地考察，其次是调查为基础的课程计划，重点是可以纳入相关的生物或物理课程的主题。 生物教师直接在野外观察和收集沉积地层和化石，然后探索化石记录中的进化、地质年代和地球化学循环的教案。支持课程计划和资源，包括几千个始新世和中新世鲨鱼牙齿，常见的矿物，岩石，化石和原油的集合，提供给教师课堂实施。物理教师的研讨会从实地考察开始，溪谷创造了数百英尺的浮雕和一系列瀑布，让参与者可以看到沉积岩的暴露和沉积层之间的接触。物理学课程计划围绕波动现象及其在地球过程中的应用（例如，温室效应、地震、地震反射和折射）。教师也有机会使用探地雷达和其他设备来拍摄地下特征。课程计划和相关的仪器，可用于调查为基础的练习，如建筑结构，在地震期间抵抗地面运动，提供了随后的课堂实施。拟议方案的目标是：将地球科学教育纳入高中生物和物理课程的现有课程，以使更多的学生受益;为这些课程的教师提供教学计划，促进对地球科学的兴趣，培养学生的批判性思维，将课堂上学到的知识与真实的世界联系起来，并与地球科学的现有知识/研究保持一致;并为教师提供设备/用品，使这些教案成为课程的亮点。该项目正在与路易斯安那州立大学正在进行的多样性增强计划进行协调，包括NSF资助的地球科学联盟，以提高少数民族的参与（GAEMP）和地球科学多样性丰富计划由马拉松石油公司资助。

Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge is developing new strategies for exposing K-12 students in Louisiana to geoscience education and career opportunities. Currently, only about 1% of Louisiana students take geoscience in high school as opposed to approximately 99% who take biology. This lack of exposure to geoscience in high school makes it difficult to recruit and retain undergraduate majors, particularly those from underrepresented groups. To address this challenge, PI Nunn and co-investigator Agnew are developing tailored workshops for high school Biology and Physics teachers at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA and Centenary College in Shreveport, LA. Both workshops begin with a field trip, followed by inquiry-based lesson plans focused on topics that can be incorporated into the relevant biology or physics course. Biology teachers directly observe and collect sedimentary strata and fossils in the field, then explore lesson plans on evolution in the fossil record, geologic time, and biogeochemical cycles. Supporting lesson plans and resources, including several thousand Eocene and Miocene shark teeth, collections of common minerals, rocks, fossils, and crude oils, are provided to the teachers for classroom implementation. The workshop for Physics teachers begins with a field trip where stream valleys have created hundreds of feet of relief and a series of waterfalls, allowing participants can see exposures of sedimentary rocks and contacts between sedimentary layers. Lesson plans in Physics are being built around wave phenomena and their application to Earth processes (e.g., greenhouse effect, earthquakes, seismic reflection and refraction). Teachers also have an opportunity to use ground penetrating radar and other equipment to image subsurface features. Lesson plans and related instrumentation that can be used in inquiry-based exercises, such as building structures that are resistance to ground motion during earthquakes, are provided for subsequent classroom implementation. The goals of the proposed program are to: interweave geoscience education into the existing curriculum for high school Biology and Physics classes in order to reach a greater number of students; provide teachers of those classes with lesson plans that promote interest in geoscience, foster critical thinking by students, relate what is learned in class to the real world, and are consistent with current knowledge/research in geoscience; and provide teachers with equipment/supplies that make these lesson plans the highlights of the course. The project is being coordinated with ongoing diversity enhancement programs at LSU including the NSF-funded Geoscience Alliance to Enhance Minority Participation (GAEMP) and the Geoscience Diversity Enrichment program funded by Marathon Oil Company.