Collaborative Research: The Geo-CC&CP Foundry - Building Institutional Capacity for Broadening Participation in the Geoscience Workforce

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Many underrepresented minorities attend two year technical and community colleges (2YCs) or minority-serving institutions (MSIs) as undergraduates; but these institutions commonly lack adequate geoscience programs. The purpose of this project is to identify strategies that will help 2YC and MSI institutions to better prepare underrepresented students for geoscience careers. This project brings together partner institutions, individual faculty, educational resource providers, educational researchers, and geoscience employers in a series of focused workshops to determine the systems that would be ideal for increasing geoscience capacity at the targeted institutions. This project directly involves 20 2YC/MSI institutional partners and faculty and 30 additional stakeholders. The main project outcome is a series of reports and related web-based resources for the general geoscience education community outlining challenges and opportunities for improving and expanding geoscience teaching at 2YCs and MSIs. Lack of access to undergraduate opportunities in two year colleges (2YCs) and minority-serving institutions (MSIs) remains a major barrier to improving the preparation and diversity of the geoscience workforce. The specific goals of this project are to (1) identify and clarify barriers and opportunities for better use of existing instructional resources that engage underrepresented students in the geosciences at 2YCs/MSIs and (2) explore with stakeholders what an ideal model of resources, professional development, and ongoing support for faculty and institutions might look like. These goals are addressed through holding a series of focused stakeholder needs assessments workshops. The needs assessments workshops will yield information about barriers and opportunities by bringing together five key stakeholder groups including (1) instructional faculty at 2YCs and MSIs, (2) educational resource providers, (3) academic chairs and administrators, (4) discipline-based geoscience education researchers, and (5) geoscience workforce employers. Reports and related web-based resources generated during each of these workshops will highlight sustainable institutional infrastructure that will increase access and usability of existing educational resources. Evaluation and project team activities will synthesize findings across the groups to generate knowledge and align future proposals with stakeholder needs. This project focuses activities at the institution and system level, directly involving 20 2YC/MSI institutional partners and faculty, and 30 other individuals from additional stakeholder groups. By working at the system level, it will be possible to ensure that not only individual courses but also pathways to the geosciences are created. The external evaluation will (1) provide an independent, objective view as to how well the project management is functioning as a team, (2) evaluate the extent to which the needs assessment workshops are meeting the project goals, and (3) review stakeholder reports and the project team's final report for accuracy and completeness. The evaluator will be a participant observer in all project team activities and will collect qualitative data from the management team after project management activities via short questionnaires. The evaluator will have access (via the SERC content management system) to all documents and records produced by the management board making it possible to track core project activities and evaluate how the team is progressing. Feedback will be provided at least quarterly to inform the PIs as to where improvements can be made. To complete the second task, the external evaluator will develop and administer a questionnaire about participant satisfaction with the workshops.