Collaborative Proposal GEOPAths:IN Recruiting through location-based Curriculum and Field and Laboratory Research Experience for High School Students, Teachers and Undergraduates

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This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Improvements to STEM K-12 education and increasing the number and diversity of young people headed into STEM careers have been identified as national priorities. This project seeks to address aspects of both of these priorities in the context of Geoscience education and workforce diversity. The project will encourage high school students including many from historically excluded groups, to become involved in the geosciences or other STEM disciplines by 1) engaging them in lesson plans developed by participating teachers to explain the local landscape and natural environment in which they live, 2) offering them opportunities to participate in geoscience research projects at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and 3) by building personal connections between students and faculty at UNLV. To facilitate interactions with high school students PIs will build long term relationships with high school earth science teachers by hosting summer workshops in which teachers will be provided with information about the local geology and natural environment and assist them in creating lesson plans for their classrooms. The activities will build up to a culminating experience where the teachers and high school students have an opportunity to claim their own identity as budding geoscientists. This project will encourage high school students including many from historically excluded groups to become involved in the geosciences or other STEM disciplines. The program will strengthen the relationship between the University of Nevada (UNLV) and the local community, including the local school district. Project objectives will be accomplished through a comprehensive program that will include: 1) building a professional earth science learning community to facilitate collaboration between local high school teachers and UNLV faculty/students; 2) generating high school earth science curriculum materials based on the local geologic resources that will provide STEM education opportunities while also introducing potential career paths in the earth sciences; 3) creating a service learning course that will pair undergraduate ‘geoscience ambassadors’ with high school classes that are utilizing the newly developed curriculum materials; and 4) engaging highly motivated high school students, high school teachers, and UNLV undergraduate students in high profile, locally relevant scientific research questions in a way that leverages cutting edge analytical equipment in the UNLV Geoscience Department. The workshop curriculum content and materials will be designed in consultation with curriculum experts so that they mesh well with the teachers’ needs and address concepts outlined in the Nevada Academic Content Standards for Science. Resultant outcomes will bear benefits to teacher and student participants, faculty and the community as the project demonstrates how to build the geoscience workforce at the local level.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.