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，人们充分认识到不同观点的价值。然而，地球科学系在试图将这种素质扩展到使地球科学发生的人身上方面却做得不够。地球科学是所有科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）领域中种族和种族多样性最少的。这种多样性的缺乏阻碍了地球科学的创新，并威胁到未来几年可满足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社会最大的挑战方面发挥关键作用，包括与气候，水和能源有关的挑战，需要不同的观点来制定公平的解决方案来应对这些挑战。该奖项提出了一个主要问题：地球科学学生的多样性可以通过参与地下水质量监测的课外计划来增加农业景观吗？该奖项将为来自堪萨斯不同农村社区的54名本科生提供地下水和地理空间科学培训。它将帮助学生看到地球科学对他们生活的价值，并有助于确保多样化的地球科学工作人员队伍，以满足一个严重依赖优质地下水供应的地区的需求。通过参加地下水质量监测的课外计划，农业景观中的地球科学学生多样性是否可以增加），该奖项将在一所大学和两所社区学院之间建立一个地球科学招聘网络，并利用它通过对地下水的课外研究，向来自不同背景的学生介绍地球科学，地下水是学生所在社区的一种重要资源。学生参与者将组成三人团队，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对地球科学学科的兴趣，以及历史上被排斥在地球科学领域的社区的学生的经验。该计划将地球科学研究与职业生涯联系起来，同时解决缺乏曝光，归属感和财务压力的学生谁是接近一个关键的过渡到四年制大学。通过测试和完善该项目，该项目将创建一个路线图，从整个中部大陆的农村社区招募不同的学生。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.