GP EXTRA: Exploration of Recruitment of Earth Scientists (EXPLORES)

长期以来，人们普遍认为，成功获得STEM学位和职业的学生短缺。即将到来的人才短缺对地球科学领域的职业来说尤其严重，预计到2024年将出现9万名专业人才的缺口。造成这种情况的原因有很多，但其中最重要的原因是专业地球科学家的退休，以及大学新生对地球科学职业机会和经济机会的认识较低，因为中学通常不教授严格的地质学课程。然而，在大学选择地球科学专业的学生对他们的学位和在自然资源管理和减轻人类对环境影响方面的职业前景非常满意。项目探索（地球科学家招聘探索）希望通过招聘、北亚利桑那大学（NAU）几乎所有STEM专业学生的课程变更、近同龄人和研究指导、职业咨询以及地质项目中欢迎的社会和教育环境的结合来解决这些问题。该项目的目标是每年至少平均增加10%的新学生进入NAU的地质学专业。项目探索采取了多种行动，以提高学生对地质专业的理解和地球科学的就业机会。我们项目的基础是化学与生物化学系和地球与可持续发展学院的教师之间的合作，在2000名STEM专业学生每年参加的化学基础课程中开发几个新的以地球科学为重点的实验室，其中包括30-40%来自代表性不足群体的学生。这些实验室将让早期职业STEM专业的学生了解地球科学家如何使用化学来量化和理解地球系统的变化。项目结束后，新实验室将作为化学课程的永久组成部分制度化。对于那些对地球科学专业感兴趣的学生来说，这个项目将为他们提供一些经验，帮助他们在毕业后接触到该专业和职业。这些经验包括：将地质学本科生同伴导师（地球科学大使）与未来的学生配对，提供有关地质学专业及其在课堂和教师中的经验的信息；带领为期一天的实地考察，前往当地壮观的地质环境，让未来的专业学生可以学习地球科学家如何将体验式学习融入课堂；邀请职业地球科学专业人士谈论他们的职业道路和机会，并就专业内的学习课程提供建议；为未来的专业学生和他们的研究导师提供奖学金，让他们在我们的前沿研究小组中进行真正的研究，包括气候科学、地球化学、地球物理、构造学和生物地球科学。由研究生和教师组成的研究导师将接受为期数天的有效指导实践培训。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。

It has long been widely recognized that there is a shortage of students successfully pursuing STEM degrees and careers. The impending shortage is particularly acute for careers in the geosciences, where it is anticipated there will be a deficit of 90,000 professionals by the year 2024. There are multiple reasons for this, but paramount among them is the aging out of professional geoscientists through retirements, and low awareness of geoscience career opportunities and financial opportunities among college freshman because rigorous geology courses are not commonly taught in secondary schools. Yet, students who discover a geoscience major at the university have very high satisfaction with their degree and the prospects of careers in the management of natural resources and mitigation of human impacts on the environment. Project EXPLORES (EXPLOration of Recruitment of Earth Scientists) is looking to address many of these issues through a combination of recruitment, curricular changes in a course taken by nearly all STEM majors at Northern Arizona University (NAU), near-peer and research mentoring, career advising, and a welcoming social and educational environment in the Geology Program. The project aims for at least an average 10% growth per year in the number of new students entering the geology major at NAU.Project EXPLORES takes multiple actions to improve student understanding of the geology major and career opportunities in the geosciences. The basis of our project is a collaboration among faculty from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the School of Earth and Sustainability to develop several new geoscience-focused labs in a chemistry foundational course taken by 2000 STEM majors each year, including 30-40% of students from underrepresented groups. The labs will expose early-career STEM majors to how geoscientists use chemistry to quantify and understand changes in the Earth system. After the project ends the new labs will be institutionalized as a permanent part of the Chemistry curriculum.To those students who show interest in the geoscience major the project will offer experiences that build their exposure to the major and careers after graduation. The experiences include:pairing geology undergraduate peer mentors (Geoscience Ambassadors) with prospective students to provide information about the geology major and their experiences in classes and with faculty; leading day-long field trips to local, spectacular geologic settings so prospective majors can learn how geoscientists incorporate experiential learning into classes; inviting career geoscience professionals to talk about their career paths and opportunities, as well as provide advice about which courses of study to pursue within the major; providing prospective majors and their research mentors stipends to conduct authentic research in one of our cutting-edge research groups that include climate science, geochemistry, geophysics, tectonics, and biogeoscience. Research mentors comprising graduate students and faculty will receive multi-day training on effective mentoring practices.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.