GP-IMPACT: Early College High School Pathways to Geoscience Majors and Careers: Full STEAM Ahead!

GP-IMPACT：早期大学高中通往地球科学专业和职业的途径：全力以赴！

• 批准号: 1600399
• 负责人: Rebecca Freeman
• 金额: $ 29.74万
• 依托单位: University of Kentucky Research Foundation
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-01 至 2019-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1600399&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GP; IMPACT; Early; College; Pathways

The University of Kentucky Department of Earth and Environmental Science (EES) and the Fayette County, Kentucky School District's STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) Academy will form a partnership to prepare students for careers in the geosciences while in high school. As society faces a potential shortage of geoscientists, this project is broadening the participation in the discipline by recruiting a diverse population of future geoscientists from underrepresented groups, and by easing their transition from high school to college. Building a model for similar collaborations between geoscience departments and the growing number of STEM-focused early-college high schools such as the STEAM Academy is another goal of this project. Such schools have been demonstrated to provide superior academic preparation, leading to higher rates of college enrollment and graduation in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. Because these schools primarily admit students through lotteries, their student population is diverse and contains groups frequently underrepresented in the geoscience discipline. Most STEM students choose their major while in high school or before and these schools specifically emphasize career paths in STEM. Currently, these schools focus on health sciences and engineering. Lack of exposure to the geosciences prior to the critical transition between high school and college is often cited as a reason for the low numbers of geoscience majors. By capitalizing on a pre-existing model of STEM recruitment, this project is testing its application to the geosciences in both recruiting and retaining geoscience students.This project is testing the hypothesis that earlier exposure to careers in the geoscience will increase the number of students recruited into the field, and that the students will be more diverse than current geoscience undergraduate demographics. Students are being given a three-part opportunity to transition towards a college degree and a career in the geosciences. All students in the STEAM Academy are participating in geoscience-focused problem-based learning units (Exposures) designed and taught in collaboration by faculty members of both EES and STEAM. These units are teaching geoscience content through building scientific thinking skills, while exposing students to potential jobs in the geosciences. Students who become interested in the geosciences then have an opportunity to participate in a semester-long Internship in EES laboratories during their sophomore year, followed by a transition into a "Geoscience Career Pathway" through coursework in EES on the UK campus during their junior and senior years, all while continuing a discipline-specific customized curriculum at the STEAM Academy. Using mixed-methods (pre- and post-testing and surveys using the Geoscience Concept Inventory), changes are being tracked in students' awareness of and attitudes towards careers in the geosciences, as well as changes in the students' understanding of basic geologic concepts as they progress through the three levels of the program. The project seeks to identify and address any obstacles that the students may be encountering. The project also is assessing the educational effectiveness of the Exposures units within the framework of the Next Generation Science Standards and modifying them as necessary, with an end goal of disseminating the material nationally. Longitudinal data to assess the effectiveness of the partnership is also being collected.

肯塔基州大学地球与环境科学系（EES）和肯塔基州费耶特县学区的STEAM（科学、技术、工程、艺术和数学）学院将建立合作伙伴关系，为学生在高中时从事地球科学职业做好准备。 由于社会面临着潜在的地球科学家短缺，该项目正在通过招募来自代表性不足的群体的未来地球科学家的多样化人口，并通过缓解他们从高中到大学的过渡，扩大对该学科的参与。为地球科学部门和越来越多的以STEM为重点的早期大学高中（如STEAM学院）之间的类似合作建立模型是该项目的另一个目标。事实证明，这些学校提供了上级学术准备，从而提高了科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的大学入学率和毕业率。 由于这些学校主要通过抽签录取学生，他们的学生群体是多样化的，包含在地球科学学科中经常代表性不足的群体。大多数STEM学生在高中或之前选择他们的专业，这些学校特别强调STEM的职业道路。目前，这些学校专注于健康科学和工程。在高中和大学之间的关键过渡之前缺乏对地球科学的接触经常被认为是地球科学专业人数少的原因。通过利用现有的STEM招聘模式，该项目正在测试其在招募和留住地球科学学生方面的应用。该项目正在测试一个假设，即早期接触地球科学职业将增加该领域的学生数量，并且学生将比目前的地球科学本科生人口统计学更加多样化。学生们有三个部分的机会过渡到大学学位和地球科学的职业生涯。在蒸汽学院的所有学生都参加了地球科学为重点的问题为基础的学习单元（曝光）设计和教学的EES和蒸汽的教师合作。这些单位通过培养科学思维能力来教授地球科学内容，同时让学生接触到地球科学领域的潜在工作。谁成为感兴趣的学生在地球科学，然后有机会参加为期一个学期的实习在EES实验室在他们的大二，随后过渡到“地球科学职业途径”通过课程在EES在英国校园在他们的大三和大四，同时继续在蒸汽学院的学科特定的定制课程。使用混合的方法（前和后测试和调查使用地球科学概念清单），变化正在跟踪学生的认识和对地球科学职业的态度，以及学生的基本地质概念的理解的变化，因为他们通过该计划的三个层次的进展。该项目旨在确定和解决学生可能遇到的任何障碍。该项目还在下一代科学标准的框架内评估了“曝光”单位的教育效果，并在必要时对其进行了修改，最终目标是在全国范围内传播这些材料。还在收集纵向数据，以评估伙伴关系的有效性。