NSF IUSE: GP-UP: Accessing the geosciences through social action at the University of Puerto Rico Humacao

ITIAS-GEO项目是一个创新的跨学科项目，将为波多黎各大学胡马考分校(UPRH)的拉美裔本科生创造机会，让他们体验地球科学。波多黎各胡马考大学是一所没有地球科学课程的小型本科少数民族服务机构。20名本科生，包括两组，将通过一个新的地球科学学习生态系统得到支持，该生态系统结合了以学分为基础的本科生基于社区的社会行动研究(CBPR)以及联合课程专业发展和地球科学职业暴露。这些学生是从UPRH的自然科学和社会科学招募的，他们将在社会科学和自然科学教师的指导下，并与当地社区合作，利用为期四个学期的CBPR来确定、开发和实施一个地球科学项目。通过这样做，学生们将深入接触与当地相关的科学及其人文背景，并获得至关重要的STEM技能，同时与已经在与气候变化的影响作斗争的社区合作，激励他们在地球科学领域追求职业生涯。除了他们在当地的经验，学生们还将参加科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的密集地球科学沉浸周，以增强他们的网络和对地球科学机会的了解，并成为全面的职业发展和职业支持计划的一部分。ITIAS-GEO计划特别针对扩大STEM中代表不足的人群的参与的必要性，为少数族裔服务机构的拉美裔低收入学生提供支持和激励，让他们参与并继续从事地球科学事业，并培养UPRH的教师在现有的社会科学和自然科学课程中从事以地球科学为中心的研究的能力。通过从头到尾让社区参与研究，参与的学生和教职员工还将为正在努力了解和适应环境危害和气候变化对人类和身体影响的社区提供相关和所需的信息和支持。该项目的主要目标包括：1)通过研究、指导和服务学习，向社会科学和自然科学专业的非地学专业学生提供进入地学的认识和途径；2)培养STEM在批判性思维、数据分析、科学和公共交流、跨学科团队科学以及本科生科学认同方面与职业相关的技能；3)通过以社区为基础的参与性研究和外联，让学生和当地社区参与地学；4)提高对地学职业及其与波多黎各的相关性的认识；以及5)建立机构之间的合作机制，以实现科学和扩大地球科学的参与目标。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

ITIAS-GEO program is an innovative transdisciplinary program that will create opportunities for Hispanic undergraduate students at the University of Puerto Rico Humacao (UPRH), a small, undergraduate minority serving institution with no geoscience program, to experience the geosciences. Twenty undergraduate students, comprising two cohorts, will be supported through a novel geoscience learning ecosystem that incorporates both for-credit undergraduate community-based social action research (CBPR) and co-curricular professional development and geoscience career exposure. The students, recruited from the natural and social sciences at UPRH, will identify, develop and conduct a geoscience project under the mentorship of social and natural science faculty and in partnership with the local community using CBPR conducted over a period of four semesters. In doing so, students will engage deeply with locally relevant science and its human context and gain vital STEM skills while collaborating with a community already struggling with the impacts of climate change, inspiring them to pursue a career in the geosciences. In addition to their locally based experience, the students will participate in an intensive geoscience immersion week at the University of Colorado at Boulder to enhance their network and understanding of opportunities in the geosciences, and be part of a comprehensive professional development and career support program.The ITIAS-GEO program specifically addresses the imperative to broaden the participation of underrepresented populations in STEM by providing support and incentives to Hispanic, low-income students at a small minority serving institution to engage with and continue toward careers in the geosciences, and builds capacity for faculty at the UPRH to engage in geoscience-centered research within existing social- and natural- science courses. By engaging the community in the research from start to finish, the participating students and faculty will also provide relevant and wanted information and support to a community that is working to understand and adapt to the human and physical impacts of environmental hazards and climate change. Key objectives of the project include: 1) Provide non-geoscience majors from the social and natural sciences with awareness of and a pathway into the geosciences through research, mentoring, and service learning; 2) Develop STEM career-relevant skills in critical thinking, data analysis, scientific and public communication, interdisciplinary team science, and scientific identity to undergraduate researchers; 3) Engage both students and the local community in geoscience through community-based participatory research and outreach; 4) Develop awareness of geoscience careers and their relevance for Puerto Rico; and 5) Create a mechanism for collaboration between institutions toward scientific and broadening participation goals in the geosciences.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.