NSF IUSE: GP-UP: Accessing the geosciences through social action at the University of Puerto Rico Humacao

ITIAS-GEO计划是一项创新的跨学科计划，将为波多黎各Humacao大学（UPRH）的西班牙裔本科生创造机会，这是一个小型的本科少数民族服务机构，没有地球科学计划，体验地球科学。20名本科生，包括两个队列，将通过一个新的地球科学学习生态系统，结合了学分本科社区为基础的社会行动研究（CBPR）和课外专业发展和地球科学职业曝光的支持。从UPRH的自然和社会科学招募的学生将在社会和自然科学教师的指导下，并与当地社区合作，使用CBPR进行为期四个学期的地球科学项目。在这样做的过程中，学生将深入参与当地相关的科学及其人文背景，并获得重要的STEM技能，同时与已经在努力应对气候变化影响的社区合作，激励他们追求地球科学事业。除了他们在当地的经验，学生将参加一个密集的地球科学沉浸周在科罗拉多大学博尔德，以加强他们的网络和了解的机会，在地球科学，并成为全面的专业发展和职业支持计划的一部分。ITIAS-GEO计划通过为西班牙裔提供支持和激励措施，具体解决了扩大STEM中代表性不足的人口参与的必要性，低收入学生在少数服务机构从事和继续对地球科学的职业生涯，并建立在UPRH教师在现有的社会和自然科学课程从事以地球科学为中心的研究能力。通过让社区从头到尾参与研究，参与的学生和教师还将为正在努力了解和适应环境危害和气候变化对人类和物理影响的社区提供相关和想要的信息和支持。该项目的主要目标包括：1）通过研究，指导和服务学习，为社会和自然科学的非地球科学专业提供认识和进入地球科学的途径; 2）培养STEM职业相关技能，包括批判性思维，数据分析，科学和公共传播，跨学科团队科学以及本科研究人员的科学身份; 3）通过以社区为基础的参与性研究和外联活动，让学生和当地社区参与地球科学; 4）提高对地球科学职业及其与波多黎各相关性的认识;（五）为机构之间的合作建立一种机制，以实现地球科学的科学和扩大参与目标。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，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。

ITIAS-GEO program is an innovative transdisciplinary program that will create opportunities for Hispanic undergraduate students at the University of Puerto Rico Humacao (UPRH), a small, undergraduate minority serving institution with no geoscience program, to experience the geosciences. Twenty undergraduate students, comprising two cohorts, will be supported through a novel geoscience learning ecosystem that incorporates both for-credit undergraduate community-based social action research (CBPR) and co-curricular professional development and geoscience career exposure. The students, recruited from the natural and social sciences at UPRH, will identify, develop and conduct a geoscience project under the mentorship of social and natural science faculty and in partnership with the local community using CBPR conducted over a period of four semesters. In doing so, students will engage deeply with locally relevant science and its human context and gain vital STEM skills while collaborating with a community already struggling with the impacts of climate change, inspiring them to pursue a career in the geosciences. In addition to their locally based experience, the students will participate in an intensive geoscience immersion week at the University of Colorado at Boulder to enhance their network and understanding of opportunities in the geosciences, and be part of a comprehensive professional development and career support program.The ITIAS-GEO program specifically addresses the imperative to broaden the participation of underrepresented populations in STEM by providing support and incentives to Hispanic, low-income students at a small minority serving institution to engage with and continue toward careers in the geosciences, and builds capacity for faculty at the UPRH to engage in geoscience-centered research within existing social- and natural- science courses. By engaging the community in the research from start to finish, the participating students and faculty will also provide relevant and wanted information and support to a community that is working to understand and adapt to the human and physical impacts of environmental hazards and climate change. Key objectives of the project include: 1) Provide non-geoscience majors from the social and natural sciences with awareness of and a pathway into the geosciences through research, mentoring, and service learning; 2) Develop STEM career-relevant skills in critical thinking, data analysis, scientific and public communication, interdisciplinary team science, and scientific identity to undergraduate researchers; 3) Engage both students and the local community in geoscience through community-based participatory research and outreach; 4) Develop awareness of geoscience careers and their relevance for Puerto Rico; and 5) Create a mechanism for collaboration between institutions toward scientific and broadening participation goals in the geosciences.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.