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策略，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，只有大约1%的路易斯安那州学生在高中学习地球科学，而大约99%的学生学习生物。高中学生缺乏对地球科学的接触，这使得招收和留住本科专业的学生变得困难，尤其是那些来自代表性不足群体的学生。为了应对这一挑战，PI Nunn和合作研究者Agnew正在为路易斯安那州巴吞鲁日路易斯安那州立大学和什里夫波特百年学院的高中生物和物理教师开发量身定制的讲习班。这两个研讨会都以实地考察开始，然后是探究性的课程计划，重点是可以纳入相关生物或物理课程的主题。生物教师直接在野外观察和采集沉积地层和化石，然后从化石记录、地质年代、生物地球化学循环等方面探索进化教案。配套的课程计划和资源，包括几千颗始新世和中新世的鲨鱼牙齿，常见矿物、岩石、化石和原油的收集，都提供给教师供课堂实施。物理教师的研讨会从实地考察开始，在那里，溪谷创造了数百英尺的地形和一系列瀑布，让参与者可以看到沉积岩的暴露和沉积层之间的接触。物理学的课程计划是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）而制定的。教师也有机会使用探地雷达和其他设备对地下特征进行成像。可用于探究式练习的课程计划和相关仪器，如在地震中抵抗地面运动的建筑结构，提供给随后的课堂实施。该计划的目标是：将地球科学教育融入现有的高中生物和物理课程中，以覆盖更多的学生；为这些课程的教师提供课程计划，以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；并为教师提供设备/用品，使这些课程计划成为课程的亮点。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项目进行协调，包括美国国家科学基金会资助的地球科学联盟促进少数民族参与（GAEMP）和马拉松石油公司资助的地球科学多样性增强项目。

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.