GP-IN: Bridging the Gap into Geosciences for Underrepresented Pre-college Populations through Experiential Learning Opportunities

尽管在过去的几十年里投入了时间和资源，但主修STEM学位的学生和进入STEM劳动力市场的人数几乎没有增加。这在地球科学专业尤为严重，因为许多学生直到本科后期才意识到这一领域及其职业发展轨迹。该项目旨在通过男孩和女孩俱乐部夏令营项目提供的体验式学习机会，让结构上代表性不足的大学预科学生接触到地球科学，从而提高对地球科学感兴趣的学生的意识，增加学生的比例和多样性。研究表明，在各种非正式学习环境中，校外活动，如夏令营，通过提供学生觉得有吸引力的娱乐和社会活动方面，在为学生提供大规模参与科学的机会方面发挥了重要作用。该项目将开发和实施四个不同的为期四周的夏令营模块，通过探究式学习，围绕当地社区面临的环境挑战，积极参与大学预科学生的科学过程。为了实现提高地球科学意识的目标，项目负责人创建了一个地球科学学习生态系统（GLE），该生态系统由大约10个既定的地球科学合作伙伴组成，他们将为参加夏令营的学生提供志愿资源和/或担任研究导师。夏令营的每个模块都将反映环境问题的跨学科特征，并让学生与活跃的地球科学家一起收集数据，分析和解释收集到的数据，以及以书面和视频形式交流研究成果。这些活动将扩大学生的经验和对社区的认识，同时也为学生提供机会，让他们看到地球科学与他们自己的生活和潜在的未来职业道路之间的关系。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。

Despite investments of time and resources over the past few decades, there has been little increase in the number of students majoring in STEM degrees and entering the STEM workforce. This is particularly problematic in the geosciences as many students are unaware of the field and its career trajectories until late in their undergraduate years. This project aims to improve the awareness and increase the percentage and diversity of students interested in geoscience by exposing structurally underrepresented pre-college students to the geosciences through experiential learning opportunities facilitated through the Boys and Girls Club summer camp programs. Research has shown that among the various informal learning environments, out-of-school activities, such as summer camps, play an important role in providing large scale opportunities for students to engage in science by providing an aspect of recreation and social activities that students find appealing. This project will develop and implement four distinct 4-week summer camp modules that will actively engage pre-college students in the process of science, through inquiry-based learning around environmental challenges facing their local community. To achieve the goal of increasing awareness of the geosciences the project leaders have created a Geoscience Learning Ecosystem (GLE) comprised of approximately 10 vested geoscience partners who will volunteer resources and/or serve as research mentors for participating summer camp students. Every module in the summer camp will reflect cross-disciplinary characteristics of environmental issues and involve students in data collection with active geoscientists, analysis and interpretation of data collected, as well as communication of research findings both in written and in video formats. These activities will broaden student experiences and awareness of their community while also providing opportunities for the students to see how geoscience is relevant to their own lives and potential future career pathways.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.