GP-EXTRA: Building a new generation of urban environmental scholar-citizens through community-based programs for science and impact

这个项目的总体目标是通过有针对性的指导和课外社区参与计划，让地学领域中代表性不足的背景的学生参与进来。新一代理科学生对直接将他们的培训应用于当地和全球的利益表现出极大的兴趣，而这一相关性的桥梁？在地球科学中很少得到充分的发展来利用这种热情。在像IUPUI这样的城市大学里，这个以道德和公平为导向的新学生很可能会参与当地的转型，更有可能具有经济、种族和/或文化的多元化背景，并渴望为他们的社区服务。我们将利用几种做法让学生参与这个项目，包括建立一个主题学习社区，为学生在大学生涯的初始阶段建立信心和支持，将在我们的专业课程中开发一套模块，积极涉及基础地球科学概念的社区范例，以及发展和支持环境行动学者队列，他们将与我们的社区合作伙伴一起构思和实施社区参与项目。总体而言，这些做法将使社区参与和地球科学领域的知情行动制度化，从而为那些可能认为自己的地球科学课堂学习与其职业目标之间存在脱节的学生提供相关性。该项目的总体目标是通过有针对性的指导和印第安纳波利斯地区的课外社区参与计划，吸引地学方面代表性不足的背景的学生。项目目标包括：利用专题学习社区(TLC)促进地球科学代表性不足学生的招募和归属感；开发四个混合课堂-实地单元，以多样化教育经验和增加教学知识，以便在与社会相关的城市背景下提供理论知识的应用；实施社区参与的教学和项目指导，通过发展环境行动学者群体并为这些学生在社区提供外部机会，以留住、支持和促进代表不足的学生成为地球科学家。这项工作的框架假设是：(1)早期吸引对科学感兴趣但没有承诺的学生并得到导师的支持将增加招募(数量和多样性)，(2)提供与相关社会挑战有关的实用地点经验将使学科学习个性化，(3)支持社区中主题相关项目的实施将为学习者提供向专家过渡的机会。这些假设是在“情境学习”的理论平台上发展起来的，应用于与社会相关和与学生相关的地学体验。研究结果将向更广泛的学术界传播，同时将向地球科学和其他STEM教育工作者提供信息，说明如何改进他们的STEM教学和学生学习，以及该项目和相关教学努力对激励来自代表性不足人群的学生从事地球科学事业的影响。对地球科学教育的更广泛影响包括开发、测试和传播新的地球科学影响模块，确定在几个关键时刻缩小地球科学多样性管道的干预措施的效力，并为学生提供机会，为地球科学领域的社区优先事项作出有意义的贡献，从而为现代地球科学工作人员做好更好的准备。

Part IThe overall goal of this project is to engage students from underrepresented backgrounds in the geosciences through targeted mentoring and extra-curricular community-engaged programs. The new generation of science students exhibits tremendous interest in direct application of their training for local and global good, and that ?bridge of relevance? is rarely adequately developed in the geosciences to take advantage of this passion. In an urban university like IUPUI, this new moral- and equity-driven student is one that is likely to be engaged in local transformation, more likely to be of economically, racially and/or culturally diverse background, and eager to serve their community. We will utilize several practices to engage students in this program, including a Thematic Learning Community to build confidence and support for students in the initial stage of their college career, a set of modules that will be developed in our majors courses that actively involve community-based examples of fundamental geoscience concepts, and the development and support of cohorts of Environmental Action Scholars, who will conceive and implement community-engaged projects in collaboration with our community partners. Collectively, these practices will institutionalize community-engagement and informed action in the geosciences, and thus provide relevance for students who might otherwise feel a disconnect between their geoscience classroom learning and their career goals. Part IIThe overall goal of this project is to engage students from underrepresented backgrounds in the geosciences through targeted mentoring and extra-curricular community-engaged programs in the Indianapolis area. Project objectives include: Utilizing Thematic Learning Communities (TLCs) to enhance recruitment of, and a sense of belonging among, underrepresented students in the geosciences; Developing four hybrid classroom-field modules to diversify educational experience and increase content knowledge in a manner that provides application of theoretical knowledge in a societally-relevant urban context; Implementing community-engaged pedagogy and project mentoring to retain, support, and promote the holistic formation of underrepresented students as geoscientists by developing Cohorts of Environmental Action Scholars and providing externship opportunities for these students in the community. The hypotheses that frame this work are (1) engaging science-interested but uncommitted students early and with mentor supports will enhance recruitment (both number and diversity), (2) providing practical place-based experiences that are linked to relevant societal challenges will personalize subject learning, and (3) supporting the implementation of topically-relevant projects in communities will provide the opportunities for learners to transition to experts. These hypotheses are developed on a theoretical platform of "situated learning" as applied to societally-relevant, and student-relevant, geoscience experiences.Findings will be disseminated to the broader scholarly community, and will simultaneously be informing geoscience and other STEM educators on how to improve their STEM teaching and student learning, as well as the impact of this project and related pedagogical efforts on motivating students from underrepresented populations to pursue careers in the geosciences. Broader impacts for geoscience education include development, testing, and disseminating novel geoscience-impacts modules, determining the efficacy of interventions at several critical junctures that narrow the diversity pipeline in the geosciences, and providing opportunities for students to contribute meaningfully to community priorities in the realm of the geosciences, and thus to be better prepared for the modern geoscience workforce.