Planning Grant: DIG Texas - A Workshop on Diversity and Innovation in Geosciences in Texas

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This award supports a 2.5 day workshop that will bring together geoscientists and geoscience educators from 35 institutions of higher education located across the state of Texas, to discuss strategies for improving geosciences literacy among the state's K-12 student population. The project is a collaboration between Texas A&M University College of Geosciences, the University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences, and the American Geophysical Union. The goals of the workshop are to: support teachers of a new high school capstone Earth and Space Science class being offered in Texas; increase appreciation and competency of Texas students and teachers regarding the geosciences; and, develop linkages among existing geosciences education programs, in order to promote synergy and multiply their impacts. The large minority (dominantly Hispanic) population within Texas offers an outstanding opportunity for broadening participation of underrepresented groups within the geosciences, through achievement of these goals. Anticipated outcomes of the workshop include a state-wide network of geoscientists and geoscience educators engaged in reforming and strengthening Earth science-related education and organized through regional hub institutions; a web site to facilitate state-wide communication; and a workshop report.