GP:IMPACT: Interactive Simulations and Systems Thinking to Broaden Pathways into the Geosciences

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Part 1. Our project seeks to promote the progress of science and advance the national prosperity by broadening the pipeline of students interested in the sciences. We will develop and leverage immersive learning tools that bring state-of-the-art sustainability science directly to 3,000 students, with the potential to scale to reach hundreds of thousands of students. Our educational approach combines interactive computer models with engaging role-play simulations, in which students learn for themselves by making decisions, and then finding out, through the computer models, how the Earth and energy systems are expected to respond to those decisions. In short, rather than being lectured to, students learn for themselves through a process that mimics scientific discovery. Further, our learning tools will take students ?under the hood,? to understand important Earth system processes and to gain a deeper understanding of the modeling process. Our project focuses on a student target audience that is currently under-represented in STEM: economically disadvantaged, first-generation-in-college students in federally funded TRIO Student Support Services programs. This focus will benefit the project by (1) leveraging and improving existing programs and networks for dissemination; (2) enhancing participation in the scientific enterprise by college students; and (3) enhancing the prospects of economically disadvantaged students.Part 2Overview:The overarching goal of this proposal is to broaden the pathway of low-income, first-generation-in-college students to the geosciences through development, implementation, and evaluation of scalable simulation-based climate and sustainability science educational tools. Our project team brings together expertise in climate and sustainability education (UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, or CCI, and Dr. McNeal), educational evaluation and research (SageFox Consulting Group and Dr. Newton), and leaders in advancing college access and success opportunities for low-income, first-generation-in-college students through federally funded TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) programs around the Nation (the Council for Opportunity in Education, or COE). Our goal is to significantly increase geoscience knowledge, interest, and motivation among early, low-income, first-generation undergraduate students. The three key project components include: (1) Develop and test a new ?Geo-Interactive? curriculum that is centered on engaging simulation-based learning tools, uses an active learning approach to introduce climate and Earth system feedback processes, and makes direct connections to academic career opportunities; (2) Leverage the extensive nationwide network of 1,080 TRIO SSS programs that together reach 205,000 students to implement, propagate, and disseminate the Geo-Interactive curriculum to those currently underrepresented in STEM professions, careers or education pathways; and (3) Determine the impact of the Geo-Interactive curriculum on geoscience-related motivation, learning, and career interest.Intellectual Merit:The simulation-based curriculum we are proposing takes an approach that is supported by educational research: it is student-centered, experiential, and addresses a highly relevant, real-world problem. The proposed curriculum will include the World Climate simulation, which was co-developed by the PI and our project partners at Climate Interactive. Initial results have shown that World Climate delivers significant gains in climate literacy, systems thinking skills, and, importantly student motivation to learn and do more about climate and sustainability. By combining World Climate with new modules that explore geoscience concepts and academic and career opportunities, potential paths into geoscience will be opened for students whose engagement and motivation has been stimulated. Importantly, our target population are early undergraduates in SSS programs, a demographic that is under-represented in the geosciences and STEM more generally, and that has strong potential to broaden and diversify the Nation?s geoscience pipeline.Broader Impacts:The proposed project is designed to benefit to society by: (1) contributing to the evidence base for effective educational approaches that reach all students, with a focus on students who have been underserved and underrepresented in the geoscience and STEM pipelines; (2) playing a role in closing the projected shortfall in geoscience professionals by broadening geoscience participation among more than 3,000 low-income, first-generation undergraduate students; (3) building a citizenry and workforce that is informed about and enable to make effective decisions in the context of global environmental change.