GP-EXTRA: RiGs - Road maps into the Geosciences

许多大学STEM专业的学生并不知道有那么多的地球科学职业可供他们选择。这尤其适用于农村地区的学生，他们是家里第一个上大学的人。这些学生往往在学业上很有天赋，但他们认为，由于经济困难，他们必须在获得理工科学位毕业后直接进入劳动力市场。这削弱了这些学生参与更多智力要求更高、更有回报、更有利可图的地球科学职业的能力，并限制了大学满足国家未来对地球科学劳动力的预测需求的潜力。为了解决这个问题，RARS(地球科学路线图)暑期项目将在密苏里州科技大学(S)、南犹他大学、库茨敦大学(宾夕法尼亚州)、密苏里州/联邦机构和私营部门之间建立一个多机构联盟。平台的目标是(I)促进农村地区经济困难的STEM学生以最低或零的成本接触到广泛的地球科学职业道路，以及(Ii)突出追求这些轨道所需的教育轨道和专业技能。RARS计划将为经济困难的本科生提供这些学生通常会放弃的学术和职业发展机会，从而成为通过发展农村劳动力来提高美国经济竞争力的试点。RARS(进入地球科学的路线图)将在密苏里州S和T；T园区建立一个为期两个月的经常性暑期项目，帮助本科生成功过渡到毕业后的地球科学工作队伍。重点是让学生沉浸在活跃的研究和/或私营部门的工作环境中，使他们能够发展通常不在课堂上教授的学术和专业技能。学生将通过地球科学研究方法论导论课程、密苏里州/联邦机构的指导研究项目或工作跟踪以及一系列课外活动来学习这些技能。地球科学研究方法论导论课程旨在为积极、动手学习适用于地球科学研究的实用技能提供背景。作为个人研究项目的一部分，这些学生将与密苏里州S大学的研究生结对，以保证他们完全沉浸在一个活跃的研究生研究环境中(即“研究生院体验”)。美国地质调查局、美国林业局和密苏里州自然资源部的工作跟踪将为参与其中的学生提供对专业地球科学家日常生活的独特洞察，此外还将在密苏里州的Doe Run领先采矿公司进行职业生涯日的补充。此外，整个暑期计划的课外活动(团队建设练习、模拟工作面试、口头陈述技能发展)将帮助学生获得成功的地球科学事业所需的专业技能和社交技能。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Many college STEM majors are unaware of the multitude of geoscience careers available to them. This particularly applies to students from rural areas who are the first in their family to attend college. These students are often academically gifted, but feel that they have to enter the workforce directly upon graduating with a BS degree, often due to financial hardship. This short-circuits these students' ability to participate in more intellectually demanding, rewarding, and lucrative geoscience careers, and limits the potential for universities to meet the projected future demands for the nation's geoscience workforce. To address this issue, the RiGs (Road maps into the Geosciences) summer program will form a multi-institutional alliance among the Missouri University of Science and Technology (S&T), Southern Utah University, Kutztown University (Pennsylvania), state/federal agencies in Missouri, and the private sector. The goal of RiGs is to (i) facilitate exposure of financially challenged STEM students from rural areas, at minimal to zero costs, to a wide array of geoscience career pathways, and (ii) to highlight the educational tracks and professional skills necessary to pursue those tracks. The RiGs program will provide an academic and professional development opportunity for financially challenged undergraduate students that these students would normally forego, thus serving as a pilot for increasing the economic competitiveness of the U.S. through rural workforce development. RiGs (Road maps into the Geosciences) will establish a recurring two-month summer program on the Missouri S&T campus that will help undergraduate students to successfully transition into the post-baccalaureate geoscience workforce. The focus is to immerse the students into an active research and/or private sector work environment that will allow them to develop academic and professional skills typically not taught in the classroom. Students will learn these skills through an Introduction to Geoscience Research Methodologies class, a mentored research project or job shadowing at state/federal agencies in Missouri, and a series of extracurricular activities. The Introduction to Geoscience Research Methodologies class is designed to provide context for the active, hands-on learning of practical skills applicable to geoscience research. As part of individual research projects, the students will be paired with Missouri S&T graduate students to guarantee full immersion into an active graduate research environment (i.e., the "Grad School Experience"). Job shadowing at the US Geological Survey, the US Forest Service, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources will provide participating students with unique insight into the daily life of a professional geoscientist, which will be complemented by a career day at the Doe Run lead mining company in Missouri. Furthermore, extracurricular activities throughout the summer program (team building exercises, mock job interviews, oral presentation skill development) will help students acquire the necessary professional and social skills for a successful geoscience career.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.