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，包括所有的核心科学，因为在设计地球科学课程时，不同观点的价值得到了很好的认识。然而，地球科学院系在将这种素质扩展到从事地球科学工作的人员方面做得不够。地球科学是所有科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域中种族和种族多样性最低的。这种多样性的缺乏阻碍了地球科学的创新，并威胁到地球科学家的供应，以满足未来几年的劳动力需求。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，水和能源相关的挑战，并且需要不同的观点来制定应对这些挑战的公平解决方案。该奖项提出了一个主要问题：通过参与地下水质量监测的课外项目，是否可以增加农业景观地学学生的多样性？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。它将帮助学生们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劳动力能够满足一个严重依赖优质地下水的地区的需求。为了解决最重要的问题（即，通过参与地下水质量监测的联合课程计划，能否增加农业景观地球科学学生的多样性），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，并利用它通过地下水的联合课程研究，向来自不同背景的学生介绍地球科学，地下水是学生家乡社区的重要资源。学生参加者将组成三人小组，每间合作院校各派出一名学生，并参与各种技术及专业发展活动。该项目的主要目标是提高人们对地球科学学科的兴趣，并增加历史上被排斥在地球科学领域的学生的经验。该项目将把地球科学研究与职业联系起来，同时为即将进入四年制大学的学生解决缺乏接触、归属感和经济压力的问题。通过测试和完善这个项目，该项目将为从中部大陆的农村社区招收不同的学生制定一个路线图。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并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。

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.