GP-EXTRA: Building an affective pathway to the geosciences through experiential learning opportunities for non-geoscience majors

如果美国要在全球变化和广泛的土地利用转型的情况下克服水、粮食和能源方面的资源安全挑战，那么今天比以往任何时候都更需要强大的地球科学劳动力。 尽管存在这一迫切需求，但选择追求与地球科学相关的职业道路的学生仍然不足。 该项目的总体目标是通过为地质专业和非专业学生提供从事与职业相关的地球科学研究的机会，增加克莱姆森大学有意从事与地球科学相关职业的学生数量。 正在采取的方法侧重于进入学习的情感领域，作为一种机制，通过学生的动机、情感和与地球的联系来增加学生对地球科学的参与。 该项目的一个重要目标是针对非地球科学专业的学生，​​因为他们代表了大量学生，他们经常通过服务（例如通识教育）课程接触地球科学，但很少有机会参与实地或研究活动，而众所周知，这两者都是地球科学职业的重要门户。 该项目使数千名学生能够接触到地球科学研究和 STEM 交流，从而对南卡罗来纳州地球科学劳动力的发展产生重大影响。 新的工业附属计划进一步让学生与现有的地球科学专业人士接触，以促进学生选择地球科学相关领域的职业。 该项目通过创建三层课外方法来解决地球科学劳动力的短缺问题，利用克莱姆森大学地质学学士学位 (BS) 现有的本科研究部分，逐步将非专业人士转变为地球科学家。 第一层让非专业学生参加地球科学服务课程，利用克莱姆森本科地球科学专业的研究活动进行课外探究式思维。 在此努力的基础上，被招募到第二级参与的学生将参加非专业导向的基于项目的学习活动，这些活动利用“公民科学”方法进行数据收集、利用 GIS 解决地球科学问题或地球科学交流和推广。 转入第三级课程的学生将参加正式的本科地球科学研究项目。 投资克莱姆森大学当前的研究项目不仅可以增强当前地质学专业学生的研究经验，还可以提供更多样化、更具吸引力和有趣的项目来吸引非专业学生。 例如，该项目能够解决气候变化、水可持续性、地质力学和地球化学等领域的前沿科学问题。 新开发的工业附属计划通过以下方式进一步加强了该项目和本科学士学位课程的成果：专业讲座、学生项目和实习的共同指导以及对学生在地球科学领域职业准备的评估。 在现有学士学位课程的基础上，该项目还可以利用克莱姆森大学的地球科学专业作为非专业和地球科学专业人士的大使，从而加强南卡罗来纳州的整体地球科学界。 该项目中的活动建立在地球科学教育文献中开发的最佳实践的基础上，并通过研究学习的情感领域如何促进学生追求地球科学职业的动机，为这一研究做出贡献。

A strong workforce in the geosciences is needed today more than ever if America is to overcome resource security challenges for water, food, and energy in the face of global change and widespread land use transitions. Despite this critical need, there is a deficit of students opting to pursue geoscience-related career paths. The overarching goal of this project is to increase the number of students at Clemson University intending to pursue a geoscience-related career by providing opportunities for both Geology majors and non-majors to engage in career-relevant geoscience research. The approach that is being taken focuses on accessing the affective domain of learning as a mechanism to increase student engagement with the geosciences, via student motivation, emotion, and connections to Earth. Targeting non-geoscience majors in this project is an important goal as they represent a large population of students that are often exposed to the geosciences through service (e.g., general education) courses, but rarely have an opportunity to participate in field or research activities, both of which are well known to be important doorways to careers in geoscience. This project enables thousands of students to be exposed to geoscience research and STEM communication, thereby making a significant impact on the development of the geoscience workforce in South Carolina. A new Industrial Affiliates program further engages students with existing geoscience professionals to promote student selection of careers in geoscience-related areas. This project addresses the deficit in the geoscience workforce by creating a three tier extracurricular approach to gradually transform non-majors into geoscientists by leveraging the existing undergraduate research component of Clemson's Geology Bachelor's (BS) degree. The first tier of engages non-major students enrolled in geoscience service courses in extracurricular inquiry-based thinking that draws on the research activities of Clemson's undergraduate geoscience majors. Building on this effort, students recruited to the second tier of engagement take part in non-major oriented project-based learning activities that utilize a "citizen science" approach to data collection, geoscience problem solving with GIS, or geoscience communication and outreach. Students transitioned into the third tier of the program take part in formal undergraduate geoscience research projects. Investing in Clemson's current research program not only strengthens research experiences for current Geology majors, but also provides more diverse, engaging and interesting projects to attract non-majors. For example, the project enables cutting-edge science questions to be addressed in areas ranging across the fields of climate change, water sustainability, geomechanics, and geochemistry. The newly-developed Industrial Affiliates program further strengthens the outcomes of both this project and the undergraduate BS degree program through: professional lectures, co-mentoring of student projects and internships, and evaluation of student preparation for careers in the geosciences. Building on the existing BS degree program also allows the project to leverage Clemson's geoscience majors as ambassadors to non-majors and geoscience professionals, thereby strengthening the overall geoscience community in South Carolina. The activities in this project build on best-practices developed in the geoscience education literature and contribute to this body of research by studying how the affective domain of learning contributes to student motivation in pursuing a career in the geosciences.