Service-Learning in Undergraduate Geosciences: A Public Workshop

增加获得STEM领域学位的学生人数和扩大宣布STEM专业学生多样性的策略是全国关注的焦点（PCAST, 2012）。这种全国性的对话在地球科学领域尤为重要，因为在地球科学专业学习的少数族裔中，代表性不足的少数族裔人数存在差异。为了满足这些需求，STEM教育工作者寻求识别和采用基于证据的最佳实践来吸引和教学学生。服务学习是一种教与学的方法，它使学生参与以课堂为基础的探究体验，其中包括对社区的有意义的服务，从而既改善学生的学习，又培养公民责任感。STEM学科中的服务学习是一种很有前途的策略，可以提供严谨和相关的STEM课程，并为学生提供在21世纪取得成功所需的技能。2016年初，美国国家科学院（NAS）科学教育委员会（BOSE）召开了为期两天的公开研讨会，主题是服务学习在本科地球科学教育中的作用。本次研讨会提供了一个深入探索如何在地球科学教育中使用服务学习的场所，分析了这种方法的潜在好处，并评估了有关影响的证据基础的强度。研讨会的参与者将讨论哪些学生的成果最有可能受到服务学习经验的影响，地球科学中服务学习的“最佳实践”可能是什么样子（由地球科学范例和其他STEM学科的范例提供信息），在本科地球科学课程中实施服务学习方法的潜在挑战，以及可能需要进一步研究的领域。正在委托这一领域的六位外部专家在研讨会之前编写白皮书。讲习班的最终报告将在项目完成后印刷并分发给相关的利益相关者。

Strategies for increasing the number of students who obtain degrees in STEM fields and broadening the diversity of students who declare STEM majors are the focus of considerable national attention (PCAST, 2012). This national conversation is particularly important in the geosciences where there is a disparity in the number of underrepresented minorities who pursue geoscience majors. In addressing these needs, STEM educators seek to identify and employ evidence-based best practices for engaging and teaching students. Service-learning is a method for teaching and learning which engages students in classroom-based inquiry experiences that incorporate meaningful service to the community, thereby both improving student learning and fostering a sense of civic responsibility. Service-learning in the STEM disciplines is a promising strategy for providing a rigorous and relevant STEM curriculum and giving students the skills needed to succeed in the 21st century.The National Academy of Science (NAS) Board on Science Education (BOSE) is convening in early 2016 a 2-day public workshop on the role of service-learning in undergraduate geoscience education. This workshop provides a venue for an in-depth exploration of how service-learning is being used in geoscience education, an analysis of the potential benefits of this approach, and evaluation of the strength of the evidence base regarding impacts. Participants in the workshop will be discussing which student outcomes are most likely to be influenced by a service-learning experience, what "best practices" for service-learning in the geosciences might look like (informed both by geoscience exemplars and exemplars from other STEM disciplines), the potential challenges to implementing service-learning approaches in undergraduate geoscience courses, and areas where additional research might be needed. Six outside experts in this field are being commissioned to prepare white papers in advance of the workshop. A final workshop report will be printed and distributed to relevant stakeholder audiences at the completion of the project.