GP-UP: Immersive Connections in Geosciences: Paleontological Field Experiences and Bridges to Robust Career Training Opportunities

尽管与经济和生计相关，地球科学仍然是美国最缺乏多样性的学科之一。具体地说，环境科学和地球科学领域的种族多样性低得惊人。为了解决这一问题，林奇堡大学(UL)将与弗吉尼亚自然历史博物馆(VMNH)合作，实施一个题为“地球科学中的身临其境的联系：古生物学实地经验和通往良好职业培训机会的桥梁”的项目(ICG项目)。在UL环境科学项目和VMNH之间长期合作伙伴关系的基础上，学生参与者将受益于一系列互补的地球科学实地工作和职业培训经验，包括在该领域挖掘恐龙遗骸，然后在VMNH实习，地球科学职业探索，以及广泛适用的职业培训。该项目的目标人群将是正在崛起的二年级和三年级学生，他们是低收入者，或者是历史上被地球科学排除在外的社区的成员。该项目将增加UL地球科学本科生的总体数量和多样性，从而促进地球科学工作的更加多样化。沉浸式连接地球科学：古生物学领域经验和通往稳健职业培训机会的桥梁(ICG项目)的目标是增加林奇堡大学(UL)地球科学专业和辅修学生的数量，重点是增加低收入学生和历史上被排除在地球科学之外的群体的学生数量。学生们将从一系列互补的地球科学实地考察和职业培训中受益，其中包括：1)为期三周的身临其境的暑期考古实地考察之旅，前往怀俄明州挖掘恐龙；2)通过弗吉尼亚自然历史博物馆(VMNH)的指导实习为地球科学职业生涯做准备；以及3)UL职业与专业中心提供的广泛适用的职业培训和探索。为了促进参与，该项目将向任何专业的学生开放；不设必修课；参加该系列体验的经济障碍将被消除。该项目将带来一支更强大、更多样化和更具包容性的地球科学工作队伍，它将加强和正式确立UL和VMNH之间的现有伙伴关系。更广泛地说，该项目可能成为未来地球科学学术/非学术合作的典范，它可能会在K-12学生群体中产生对地球科学的新兴趣，这可能会进一步加强地球科学工作。该奖项反映了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。

Despite relevance to economies and livelihoods, the geosciences remain one of the least diverse disciplines in the United States. Specifically, racial diversity in the environmental science and geoscience fields is staggeringly low. To address this, the University of Lynchburg (UL), in partnership with the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH), will implement a project entitled Immersive Connections in Geosciences: Paleontological Field Experiences and Bridges to Robust Career Training Opportunities (the ICG Project). Building on a longstanding partnership between UL’s Environmental Science Program and VMNH, student participants will benefit from a complementary series of geoscience field work and career training experiences, including excavation of dinosaur remains in the field followed by an internship with VMNH, geoscience career exploration, and broadly applicable career training. The target population for the project will be rising sophomores and juniors who are low-income or are members of communities historically excluded in geosciences. The project will increase the overall number and diversity of undergraduate students in geosciences at UL, thus contributing to a more diverse geoscience workforce.The goal of Immersive Connections in Geosciences: Paleontological Field Experiences and Bridges to Robust Career Training Opportunities (the ICG Project) is to increase the number of geoscience majors and minors at the University of Lynchburg (UL), with an emphasis on increasing the number of low-income students and students from groups historically excluded in the geosciences. Student participants will benefit from a complementary series of geoscience field work and career training experiences including: 1) an immersive three-week summer paleontological field trip to Wyoming for dinosaur excavation; 2) geoscience career preparation through a mentored internship with the Virginia Museum of Natural History (VMNH); and 3) broadly applicable career training and exploration provided by UL’s Career and Professionalism Center. To foster participation, the project will be open to students in any major; there will be no prerequisite classes; and financial barriers to participating in the series of experiences will be eliminated. The project will lead to a more robust, diverse, and inclusive geoscience workforce, and it will strengthen and formalize an existing partnership between UL and VMNH. More broadly, the project may serve as a model for future academic/non-academic partnerships in the geosciences, and it may generate new interest in geosciences among K-12 student populations, which could further strengthen the geoscience workforce.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.