GeoConnections: Evaluating the Impact of Place-Based, Culturally-Relevant Geoscience Learning Modules on Undergraduate Students' Connections to Geoscience Concepts and Careers

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GeoConnections is a research project designed to test the idea that including cultural relevance in introductory geology lessons will increase undergraduate students' connections to geoscience concepts and careers. Researchers from Purdue University in Indiana and Heritage University in Washington will test this idea by developing and assessing the impacts of geology activities built around cultural connections for Native American students. While some research has been conducted on Native Americans' understandings of geoscience, there has been less emphasis on recognizing and leveraging common connections Native students make between their traditional cultures and Western science. Thus, a key element of this research is to identify connections Native American students make between introductory geology concepts and their everyday lives and cultural traditions. The researchers will use these connections in modified geology activities that connect to the cultural as well as geographical sense of place experienced by students. This allows the researchers to assess the degree to which enhancing the cultural relevance of introductory geology activities increases undergraduate students' connections to geoscience concepts and careers. This approach may then be used with other student groups and their cultural connections to geologic concepts. The GeoConnections project will develop and assess Geoscience Education Modules (GEMs), which are based on cultural and geological connections. The GEMs are also created with the educational needs of geoscience instructors and Native American undergraduate students as a guiding focus for creating transformative learning experiences through metacognitive and reflexive pedagogies. By collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data on underrepresented and majority students' knowledge and conceptions of geoscience concepts and careers, both pre- and post-involvement in GEMs, the researchers will triangulate the impacts of including culturally relevant educational modules in undergraduate geology instruction. This will increase the collective knowledge of Native American views of science within a variety of educational settings and enhance understanding of the impacts of education based on ways that Native American students find relevance in Western scientific concepts through their individual cultures. This has the potential to be valuable to Native American students who have previously been unable to easily find cultural relevance in Western geoscientific concepts, and may provide an adaptable and expandable model to bridge the gap between the educational experiences of underrepresented groups and the overarching goal to create an equitable learning environment for diverse populations.