Helping Earth and Environmental Science Programs in Changing Times: Virtual Traveling Workshops and Expanding the Conversation about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

所有的教育都在向越来越依赖虚拟形式过渡。远程教育在互联网出现之前就已经存在，但自2019冠状病毒病疫情开始以来，它不得不加速发展，几乎无处不在。这一流行病突出并加剧了教育系统中的不平等，包括获得虚拟学习机会的机会。教育工作者正在努力解决这些不平等问题。NAGT于2020年7月虚拟举办了年度地球教育工作者聚会，并于2020年9月举办了两次虚拟培训研讨会（TW），获得了有关虚拟活动的体验知识。拟议的TW将探索使参与者虚拟参与的技术，并促进关于地球和环境科学中不平等和代表性不足的根源的困难对话。培训研讨会（TW）将帮助大津、NAGT及其参与的教育工作者和教育机构加强STEM教育，改变地球和环境教育，并为更多的学生做好准备，以考虑连接地球和社会的工作和职业--这是美国劳动力的巨大需求。缺乏多样性是地球和环境科学面临的一个挑战，甚至比其他一些STEM领域更严重。考虑到地球教育的种族和社会背景，导致对环境正义的讨论，并有助于吸引来自代表性不足的人口的学生进入地球和环境领域。该项目的目标是通过将工作组转换为在线格式，更加注重多样性、公平和包容性，改造讲习班材料和网站，并培养主持人来举办这些讲习班，从而扩大获取机会。每个TW都充分结合了研讨会参与者的评估，这将有助于确定如何将研讨会中学到的技术融入促进中。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

All of education is transitioning to increased reliance on virtual formats. Distance education pre-dates the internet but has had to accelerate to near-ubiquity since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The pandemic has highlighted and exacerbated inequities in the educational system, including access to virtual learning opportunities. Educators are struggling with how to address these inequities. NAGT gained experiential knowledge about virtual events when it held the annual Earth Educators’ Rendezvous virtually in July 2020 and two virtual training workshops (TW) in September 2020. The proposed TW will explore techniques for keeping participants engaged virtually and for facilitating difficult conversations regarding root causes of inequality and underrepresentation in the Earth and environmental sciences. The training workshop (TW) will help TSU, NAGT and its participating educators and educational institutions to strengthen STEM education, transform Earth and environmental education and prepare a greater diversity of students to consider jobs and careers connecting the Earth and society --a great need in the U.S. workforce. Lack of diversity is a challenge in the Earth and environmental sciences even more so than some other STEM fields. Consideration of the racial and societal contexts of Earth education leads to discussion of environmental justice and can help to attract students from underrepresented populations into Earth and environmental fields. The project goals are to expand access by converting TWs into an online format, incorporating more focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), transform workshop materials and websites, and prepare facilitators to conduct these workshops. Each TW fully incorporates evaluation by the workshop participants that will help to determine how techniques learned in the workshop are incorporated into facilitation.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.