GP-IN: Introducing Community College and Pre-College Students to Geoscience through Groundwater Quality Monitoring

地球科学培训是跨学科的，包括所有核心科学，因为在设计地球科学课程时充分认识到不同观点的价值。然而，地学部门在尝试将这种素质扩展到使地学成为现实的人方面做得不够。地球科学是所有科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域中种族和种族差异最小的。这种多样性的缺乏阻碍了地球科学的创新，并威胁到可用于满足未来几年劳动力需求的地球科学家的供应。此外，地球科学家将在帮助解决一些最大的社会挑战方面发挥关键作用，包括与气候、水和能源有关的挑战，需要不同的视角来制定公平的解决方案来应对这些挑战。这个奖项提出了一个主要问题：是否可以通过参与地下水质量监测的共同课程计划来增加农业景观中地球科学学生的多样性？该奖项将为来自堪萨斯州不同农村社区的54名本科生提供地下水和地理空间科学方面的培训。它将帮助学生认识到地球科学对他们生活的价值，并帮助确保拥有多样化的地球科学劳动力，以满足严重依赖优质地下水供应的地区的需求。为了解决首要问题(即，能否通过参与地下水质量监测联合课程计划增加地球科学学生在农业景观中的多样性)，该奖项将在一所大学和两所社区学院之间创建一个地球科学招生网络，并利用它通过共同课程研究地下水-学生家庭的关键资源-向不同背景的学生介绍地球科学。学生参赛者将组成三人团队，由每个合作机构的一名学生组成，并将参加各种技术和专业发展活动。该项目的主要目标是提高人们对地球科学学科的兴趣以及来自历史上被排斥的社区的学生在地球科学领域的经验。该计划将把地球科学研究与职业联系起来，同时解决即将过渡到四年制大学的学生缺乏曝光率、归属感和经济压力的问题。通过测试和改进这一计划，该项目将为招收来自中部大陆农村社区的不同学生制定路线图。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Geoscience training is interdisciplinary and includes all of the core sciences because the value of diverse perspectives is well recognized when designing geoscience curricula. However, geoscience departments have fallen short in attempts to extend that quality to the people who make geoscience happen. The geosciences are the least ethnically and racially diverse of all science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields. This lack of diversity holds back geoscience innovation and threatens the supply of geoscientists available to meet workforce demands in the coming years. Moreover, geoscientists will play critical roles in helping solve some of society’s biggest challenges including challenges related to climate, water, and energy, and diverse perspectives are needed to develop equitable solutions to these challenges. This award asks the main question: can geoscience student diversity be increased in agricultural landscapes through participation in a co-curricular program of groundwater quality monitoring? This award will provide training in groundwater and geospatial sciences to 54 undergraduate students from diverse rural communities in Kansas. It will help the students see the value of geoscience to their lives and help ensure that a diverse geoscience workforce will be available to meet the needs of a region that depends heavily on the availability of quality groundwater.To address the overarching question (i.e., can geoscience student diversity be increased in agricultural landscapes through participation in a co-curricular program of groundwater quality monitoring), this award will create a geoscience recruiting network between a university and two community colleges and use it to introduce students from diverse backgrounds to geoscience through co-curricular research on groundwater, a critical resource for the students’ home communities. Student participants will form three-person teams, consisting of one student from each partnering institution and will participate in a variety of technical and professional development activities. The project's primary goals are to increase the interest in geoscience disciplines as well as the experiences of students from historically excluded communities in the geosciences. The program will connect geoscience research to careers, while simultaneously addressing lack of exposure, sense of belonging, and financial stress for students who are nearing a critical transition to a four-year university. By testing and refining this program, this project will create a roadmap for recruiting diverse students from rural communities across the midcontinent.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.