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

肯塔基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)学院将结成合作伙伴关系，为学生在高中期间在地球科学领域的职业生涯做准备。由于社会面临潜在的地球科学家短缺，该项目正在通过从代表性不足的群体中招募不同的未来地球科学家群体，并通过简化他们从高中到大学的过渡，来扩大对该学科的参与。该项目的另一个目标是，在地球科学部门和STEM重点的大学预科高中(如STEAM学院)数量不断增加的情况下，建立类似的合作模式。事实证明，这样的学校提供了出色的学术准备，导致了科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域更高的大学入学率和毕业率。由于这些学校主要通过抽签方式招收学生，它们的学生人数多样，而且在地球科学学科中往往没有得到足够的代表。大多数STEM学生在高中或高中之前就选择了他们的专业，这些学校特别强调STEM的职业道路。目前，这些学校的重点是健康科学和工程。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较少的一个原因。通过利用现有的STEM招生模式，该项目正在测试其在招收和留住地学学生方面的应用。该项目正在检验这样一种假设，即更早接触地球科学领域的职业将增加被录取到该领域的学生数量，并且学生将比目前的地学本科人口结构更加多样化。学生们将有三部分机会过渡到大学学位和地球科学领域的职业生涯。STEAM学院的所有学生都参加由EES和STEAM的教员合作设计和教授的以地球科学为重点的以问题为基础的学习单元(Exposure)。这些单元通过培养科学思维技能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。对地球科学感兴趣的学生有机会在大二期间参加EES实验室为期一学期的实习，然后在大三和大四期间通过在英国校园EES的课程作业过渡到“地球科学职业道路”，同时在STEAM Academy继续一个针对特定学科的定制课程。使用混合方法(使用地球科学概念清单进行前后测试和调查)，正在跟踪学生对地球科学职业的认识和态度的变化，以及学生在通过项目的三个级别的过程中对基本地质概念理解的变化。该项目旨在确定并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》的框架内评估曝光单元的教育效果，并在必要时对其进行修改，最终目标是在全国范围内传播材料。还在收集评估伙伴关系有效性的纵向数据。

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.