Bridging the Diversity Gap: Research Experiences in the Geosciences for Community College Students and Transfers

爱荷华州立大学的这个为期两年的试点项目将引进一批有才华的社区大学学生，并通过为期十周的暑期实习转移到环境地球科学方面的合作研究经验。在生物地学本科生持续研究经验的基础上，该项目的目标是(1)从社区学院招收有才华的女性、非传统学生和未被充分代表的少数民族学生，并为他们提供在地球科学领域开展前沿研究的机会；(2)让学生接触不同的科学途径、网络基础设施和实验方法；(3)通过出版和演示向学生介绍科学成果；以及(4)激励学生在地球科学和其他STEM领域追求职业生涯。学生与国际公认的教师、研究生、博士后研究人员和其他本科生等团队密切合作。学生将参加一系列工作坊和研讨会，讨论研究方法、职业规划和科学研究中的伦理等问题。该计划还包括实地考察、社会活动和其他社区建设和丰富活动，旨在培养学生作为一个多元文化群体的凝聚力和同志情谊，并提高他们对科学研究的鉴赏力。这次经历将以一个研究研讨会结束，在研讨会上，学生将向来自当地、州和联邦机构的教职员工、同行和科学家展示他们的工作。通过强调环境系统所特有的跨学科方法和交叉过程，该项目使学生不仅接触到他们自己的个人研究项目，而且还将这些个人的努力纳入更大的全系统范围。此外，通过向社区大学生介绍揭示人类主导的景观和生态系统中的环境过程的研究，学生将获得必要的培训，为未来在地球科学和相关STEM学科的广泛学术和专业职业生涯做准备。

This two-year pilot project at Iowa State University is introducing a cohort of talented community college students and transfers to collaborative research experiences in environmental geosciences through a ten-week summer internship. Building on an ongoing Research Experience for Undergraduates in the biogeosciences, this project has the objectives to (1) recruit talented females, nontraditional students, and underrepresented minority students from community colleges and provide them with opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research in the geosciences; (2) provide exposure to different scientific approaches, cyberinfrastructure and experimental methods; (3) introduce students to the presentation of scientific results through publication and presentation; and (4) motivate students to pursue careers in the geosciences and other STEM fields. Students work closely with teams including internationally recognized faculty, graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and other undergraduate students. Students will participate in a series of workshops and seminars addressing issues such as research methodology, career planning, and ethics in scientific research. Also included in the program are field trips, social activities, and other community-building and enrichment activities designed to foster cohesiveness and camaraderie among the students as a multicultural group and to enhance their appreciation of scientific research. The experience will conclude with a research symposium at which students will present their work to faculty, peers, and scientists from local, state and federal agencies. By stressing interdisciplinary approaches and cross-cutting processes that typify environmental systems, this project exposes students to not only their own individual research projects, but also the integration of those individual efforts into a larger system-wide context. In addition, by introducing community college students to the research that unravels the environmental processes in human-dominated landscapes and ecosystems, students will obtain requisite training for a broad array of future academic and professional careers in the geosciences and related STEM disciplines.