Recruiting and Fostering Students through Field Geoscience

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The NSF Scholarships in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (S-STEM) program supports the retention and graduation of high-achieving, low-income students with demonstrated financial need. Over a five-year period, this S-STEM project at the University of California at Davis will fund 50 undergraduate and 21 graduate scholarships for geoscience students in the fields of Geology and Coastal and Marine Sciences. To recruit students into geosciences, the project will partner with eight area community colleges. Starting with this group, the project will systematically support students beginning with their first experience in field-based science. The project has a progression of follow-on experiences, including an undergraduate field course, research experiences, internships, and/or entry into graduate school. In addition to the undergraduate scholarships, the project will include "Jumpstart Scholarships" to first year graduate students. The broad range of opportunities for field-based experiences will serve opportunities to mentor students and enable student to get involved in increasing levels of research. The expectation is that the financial, academic, and personal support for students will lead to increased recruitment, retention, and graduation in geoscience fields. This project will serve dual goals: education and research. The education goal is to recruit and retain highly qualified, low-income students in geosciences. The project aims to achieve this goal by supporting students from gateway geoscience courses to undergraduate majors, and into graduate school or geoscience professions. The research goal is to test: (1) whether undergraduate field instruction can enhance content understanding and student engagement; and (2) whether the novelty of working in a field environment is an impediment to low-income and other underrepresented students, and how such novelty space can be reduced. The second question addresses research suggesting that the novelty of being in an unfamiliar field environment can negatively impact student experiences and learning. The project will assess whether this novelty-related anxiety may challenge low-income and other beginning geoscience students, and what interventions can mitigate novelty anxiety. This project has the potential to increase and broaden participation in geoscience, thus enhancing the future workforce of geoscience researchers, teachers, and industry professionals.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.