GP-Impact: Service Learning Activities Targeting the Earth Sciences (SLATES)

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Part IThe SLATES (Service Learning Activities Targeting the Earth Sciences)project will provide opportunities for hundreds of University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) and El Paso Community College (EPCC) students (and their families) to experience how the geosciences may be of benefit to their local community. UTEP and EPCC are both minority serving institutions whose student populations (over 80% Hispanic) mirrors the local community. Service learning provides students with culturally relevant context in a community where interpersonal relationships are important motivators; it involves multiple learning styles to appeal to diverse students and develops higher order thinking skills. Formal evaluations built into the proposed project will allow the determination of which short- and long-term service learning activities are the most effective for attracting and retaining Hispanic students in the geosciences. The research team will examine which long-term activities are the most successful at developing the professional skills to prepare students for careers in the geosciences. The team will develop a field guide that describes the process used to design the most successful short- and long-term learning activities for the program. The team believes this guide and associated presentations given at meetings will help other 2-year and 4-year institutions of higher education develop effective ways to involve students in service learning in the geosciences. Part IIThe SLATES (Service Learning Activities Targeting the Earth Sciences)project will provide opportunities for hundreds of University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP) and El Paso Community College (EPCC) students (and their families) to experience how the geosciences may be of benefit to their local community. UTEP and EPCC are both minority serving institutions whose student populations (over 80% Hispanic) mirrors the local community. Place based learning and service learning have been shown to increase the recruitment and retention of minority students in the geosciences. Service learning provides students with culturally relevant context in a community where interpersonal relationships are important motivators; it involves multiple learning styles to appeal to diverse students and develops higher order thinking skills. The objectives of SLATES are to use a short-term service learning program to demonstrate how geoscience impacts the local community, increase the number of students who decide to major in the geosciences at UTEP and EPCC, and ease the transfer of students from EPCC to UTEP. Long-term service learning activities will build on this foundation by improving students' soft and technical skills in the geosciences. The long- and short-term learning activities will also introduce students to a range of careers in the geosciences. Formal evaluations built into the proposed project will allow the research team to determine which short- and long-term service learning activities are the most effective for attracting and retaining Hispanic students in the geosciences. The team will develop a field guide that describes the process used to design the most successful short- and long-term learning activities for the program. The team believes this guide and associated presentations given at meetings will help other 2-year and 4-year institutions develop effective ways to involve students in service learning in the geosciences.