GP-IMPACT: Improving Geoscience Education for Rural and First-Generation College Students through a Shared-Instruments Collaboration

西弗吉尼亚大学戴维斯农业、自然资源与设计学院、埃伯利艺术与科学学院地质与地理系、教育与人类服务学院和卓越STEM教育中心正在共同努力，开发与区域相关的课堂活动和基于社区的参与性研究项目，以弥合高中和大学之间的鸿沟，同时培养高中教师，通过WVU的HS STEM教师培训项目WVUteach的资助来维持这些工作。这组科学家将在地球和空间科学（ESS）领域创建一个新的教师执照，以增加西弗吉尼亚州（WV）学校合格地球科学教师的数量。该项目汇集了一个专门负责监督地球科学本科生研究和教学的领导团队，研究科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）专业和职业的招聘和保留，以及科学教师的准备，为开发地球科学教师培养模式提供了丰富的机会，可以显著改变地球科学在HS的教学方式。提出的基于证据的模型假设，如果学生有有意义的机会使用结合到基于项目的教学（PBI）的现代仪器参与现实世界的问题，那么他们更有可能参与地球科学。如果该模型被证明是有效的，项目团队与UTeach领导层的密切联系将允许在45所UTeach大学中传播，这些大学目前招收了6000多名未来的STEM教师，让这个社区参与一个潜在的长期研究项目，研究对地球科学课堂教学内容的影响，以及如何影响学生对地球科学专业和职业的选择。2017年，超过50%的所有学位级别的地球科学家（69%的博士）报告说他们参加了HS地球科学课程，这表明在HS级别提供此类课程对于在大学级别和更高级别参与该领域的重要性。WV教育部调整了下一代科学标准，并重组了HS科学课程，为所有WV 9年级学生提供了一个ESS课程。WVDE政策允许任何具有科学认证的教师教授ESS课程，因为获得ESS认证的途径是有限的。然而，来自其他学科的教师不太可能让学生接触到地球科学职业的可能性，而且WV（包括WVU）最大的教师生产者没有ESS认证途径。在高等教育和本科课程中，也缺乏直接访问可以将PBI与“真正的”科学联系起来的分析仪器。在解决这一问题的过程中，该项目将为西弗吉尼亚大学的教学人员提供理想的专业知识，通过将现代仪器纳入PBI的研究项目，让高中学生参与解决社区问题，以创造更深层次的学习感。这些教师的准备工作将包括利用PBI让HS学生参与社区研究。职前教师将在本科研究、研究方法和教学方法课程中准备使用便携式x射线荧光（pXRF）仪器进行现场地球化学分析，以吸引学生回答科学问题，这些技能将作为职前和在职教师带到课堂上。因此，将向教师和学生提供易于使用的便携式设备，以提供与该区域学生感兴趣的许多科学问题有关的数据。这些设备将在培养未来的地球科学家和STEM教师以及教师毕业生的课程中共享，从而加强HS和大学之间的地球科学途径。该计划将为高中学生提供能够向学生传授地球科学研究的本质和研究方法的ESS教师，从而增加他们在进入大学时对地球科学专业和职业机会有所了解的人数。通过将pXRF仪器整合到拟议的本科生研究，研究方法和教学方法课程中，并进入WV HS教室，并创造一种基于场所的科学感，我们将创建一个管道，鼓励学生进入地球科学。该项目将为接待参与的职前实习教师的HS导师教师提供丰富的课堂，为这些教师提供专业发展，并使他们的学生接触到使用现代仪器的强化社区研究项目，进一步增加影响。在项目结束后，这将持续下去，因为它将嵌入WVUteach计划，培养有执照的教师，准备让他们的学生参与研究。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。

Part 1The West Virginia University's (WVU) Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Department of Geology and Geography, College of Education and Human Services and Center for Excellence in STEM Education are working together to develop regionally-relevant classroom activities and community-based participatory research projects to bridge the high school (HS) to college divide while creating the HS teachers needed to sustain such work past funding through WVUteach, WVU's HS STEM teacher preparation program. The researchers will create a new teacher licensure in Earth and Space Science (ESS) to increase the number of qualified geoscience teachers in West Virginia (WV) schools. The project brings together a leadership team with expertise in supervising undergraduate research and teaching in the geosciences, research on recruitment and retention to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors and careers, and science teacher preparation provides a rich opportunity to develop a model of geoscience teacher development that can significantly change the way geoscience is taught in HS. The proposed evidence-based model assumes that students are more likely to engage in the geosciences if they have meaningful opportunities to engage with real-world problems using modern instruments incorporated into project-based instruction (PBI). If the model proves efficacious, the project team's close connections with UTeach leadership will allow dissemination throughout the 45 UTeach universities which currently enroll over 6,000 future STEM teachers, engaging this community in a potential long-term research project to study the impact on what is taught in geoscience classrooms and how that impacts students' choice of geoscience majors and careers.Part 2In 2017, over 50% of geoscientists at all degree levels (69% doctoral) reported having taken a HS geoscience course, demonstrating the importance of offering such courses at the HS level to participation in the field at the university level and beyond. The WV Department of Education adapted the Next Generation Science Standards and restructured the HS science curriculum to include an ESS class for all WV 9th graders. WVDE policy allows any teacher with science certification to teach ESS courses, as pathways to obtain ESS certification are limited. Yet teachers from other disciplines are unlikely to be able to expose students to geosciences career possibilities, and the largest producers of teachers in WV (including WVU) do not have an ESS Certification pathway. There is also a lack of direct access to analytical instruments that can connect PBI and 'real' science, in both HS and undergraduate courses. In a step toward solving this problem, this project will provide the WV teaching workforce with the ideal expertise to engage HS students in solving community-based problems through research projects using modern instruments incorporated into PBI to create a deeper sense of learning. These teachers' preparation will include utilizing PBI to engage HS students in conducting community-based research. Pre-service teachers will be prepared in undergraduate research, research methods and teaching methods courses to conduct in-situ geochemical analyses using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instruments to engage students in answering scientific questions, skills that they will bring to the classroom as pre-service and later, in-service teachers. Thus, teachers and students will be provided with access to easy-to-use, transportable devices to provide data relevant to many scientific questions of interest to students in the region. These devices will be shared in courses that prepare future geoscientists and STEM teachers and by teacher graduates, strengthening the geosciences pathway across HS and college. The proposed project will increase the number of HS students who arrive at college aware of geosciences majors and career opportunities by providing them with ESS teachers who can educate students about the nature of geoscience research and research methods. By integrating pXRF instruments into the proposed undergraduate research, research methods and teaching methods courses and into WV HS classrooms and creating a sense of place-based science, we will create a pipeline to encourage students to enter the geosciences. The project will enrich classrooms for mentor HS teachers who host participating preservice student teachers, providing these teachers professional development and exposing their students to enhanced community-based research projects using modern instruments, further increasing impact. This will be sustained after the project's conclusion as it will be embedded in the WVUteach program, producing licensed teachers prepared to engage their students in research.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.