GP-EXTRA: RiGs - Road maps into the Geosciences

许多大学STEM专业的学生都没有意识到有大量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。这些学生通常在学术上有天赋，但由于经济困难，他们觉得自己必须在获得学士学位后直接进入劳动力市场。这阻碍了这些学生参与对智力要求更高、回报更高、利润更丰厚的地球科学职业的能力，并限制了大学满足未来对国家地球科学劳动力需求的潜力。为了解决这个问题，RiGs（通往地球科学的路线图）暑期项目将在密苏里科技大学、南犹他大学、库茨敦大学（宾夕法尼亚州）、密苏里州/联邦机构以及私营部门之间形成一个多机构联盟。RiGs的目标是(i)帮助来自农村地区的经济困难的STEM学生以最低到零的成本接触到广泛的地球科学职业道路，以及（ii）突出追求这些道路所需的教育轨道和专业技能。RiGs项目将为经济困难的本科生提供一个学术和专业发展的机会，这些学生通常会放弃，从而作为通过农村劳动力发展提高美国经济竞争力的试点。RiGs（通往地球科学的路线图）将在密苏里州立大学校园建立一个为期两个月的暑期项目，帮助本科生成功过渡到学士学位后的地球科学工作岗位。重点是让学生沉浸在积极的研究和/或私营部门的工作环境中，这将使他们能够发展通常在课堂上没有教授的学术和专业技能。学生将通过地球科学研究方法导论课程、密苏里州/联邦机构的指导研究项目或工作见习以及一系列课外活动来学习这些技能。地球科学研究方法导论课程旨在为地球科学研究中应用的实际技能的主动、动手学习提供背景。作为个人研究项目的一部分，学生将与密苏里大学的研究生配对，以确保完全沉浸在活跃的研究生研究环境中（即“研究生院体验”）。在美国地质调查局、美国林务局和密苏里州自然资源部的工作见影将为参与的学生提供对专业地球科学家日常生活的独特见解，并将在密苏里州的Doe Run铅矿业公司进行职业日。此外，整个暑期项目的课外活动（团队建设练习，模拟工作面试，口头表达技能发展）将帮助学生获得成功的地球科学职业所需的专业和社交技能。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.