LaURGE - Louisiana Undergraduate Recruiting and Geoscience Education

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，路易斯安那州只有大约1%的学生在高中学习地球科学，相比之下，大约99%的学生选择了生物。高中缺乏对地球科学的接触，这使得招收和留住本科生专业变得困难，特别是那些来自代表性不足的群体的专业。为了应对这一挑战，皮纳恩和合作者阿格纽正在路易斯安那州立大学巴吞鲁日的路易斯安那州立大学和洛杉矶什里夫波特的百年学院为高中生物和物理教师开发量身定做的研讨会。两个工作坊都从实地考察开始，然后是以探究为基础的课程计划，重点是可以纳入相关生物或物理课程的主题。生物教师在野外直接观察和收集沉积层和化石，然后探索化石记录、地质时代和生物地球化学循环中的进化教案。辅助性的教案和资源，包括几千颗始新世和中新世的鲨鱼牙，收集常见的矿物、岩石、化石和原油，提供给教师用于课堂实施。为物理教师举办的研讨会从实地考察开始，溪谷创造了数百英尺的起伏和一系列瀑布，参与者可以看到沉积岩的暴露和沉积层之间的接触。正在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)制定物理学课程计划。教师还有机会使用探地雷达和其他设备对地下地物进行成像。提供了可用于探究性练习的教案和相关工具，例如在地震期间抵抗地面运动的建筑结构，供随后的课堂实施。拟议方案的目标是：将地球科学教育融入高中生物和物理课程的现有课程，以便接触到更多的学生；为这些班级的教师提供教案，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现实世界联系起来，并与当前的地球科学知识/研究保持一致；向教师提供使这些教案成为课程亮点的设备/用品。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，包括由NSF资助的加强少数群体参与的地球科学联盟(GAEMP)和由马拉松石油公司资助的地球科学多样性丰富计划。

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.