Collaborative Research: The Math Your Earth Science Majors Need, When They Need It: Improving Quantitative Skills in The Future Earth Science Workforce

该项目将通过加强本科地球科学专业学生的定量技能和推理能力和信心来服务于美国国家利益，从而使学生更好地了解地球过程并为地球科学职业做好准备。这是一个Tier 2项目的学生学习轨道。大量熟练的地球科学毕业生对于满足劳动力和国家的需求至关重要。然而，在地球科学背景下的数学技能的应用充满了困难，如学生的准备不均衡，看门人数学先决条件课程，教师谁没有受过训练，教定量技能，学生数学焦虑，以及将数学技能转移到一个特定的科学背景下的认知困难。该项目将开发所需的课程资源和教师专业发展，以显着提高地球科学专业的学科数学能力。该项目将通过多管齐下的方法来提高地球科学本科生的定量技能和信心：1）开发辅助课程模块，以支持地球科学课程和计划中专业水平的定量技能发展; 2）组织教师专业发展，以开发和整合这些资源;以及3）就有效的实施策略和学生的技能进步和态度进行教育研究。资源设计的核心是将数学技能应用于地球科学应用，并从各种子学科中提取实例。将征聘具有一系列地球科学学科专门知识的模块作者，以确保所产生的资源具有广泛的适用性。评估和评价将由项目主要调查员和外部评价员进行。模块化的方法将允许教师采用适合他们个人课程的模块，并帮助支架定量技能跨越地球科学课程或专门的定量地球科学课程。免费的在线模块集合将托管在科学教育资源中心（SERC）网站上。该项目还将与SERC合作，以提高教师对现有活动集合的发现，学生可以进一步应用他们使用本项目中编写的模块开发的定量技能。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生STEM教育的有效性。该奖项反映了NSF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。

This project will serve the US national interest by strengthening undergraduate Earth science majors' proficiency and confidence with quantitative skills and reasoning, resulting in students who better understand Earth processes and are prepared for geoscience careers. It is a Tier 2 project on the Engaged Student Learning Track. Quantitatively skilled Earth science graduates are critical to meeting the needs of the workforce and the country. However, the application of math skills in a geoscience context is fraught with difficulties such as the uneven preparation of students, gatekeeper mathematics prerequisite courses, faculty who are not trained to teach quantitative skills, student math anxiety, and the cognitive difficulty of transferring mathematical skills to a specific science context. This project will develop the needed curricular resources and faculty professional development to significantly improve geoscience majors’ disciplinary math capabilities. The project will improve the quantitative skills and confidence of Earth science undergraduates by a multi-pronged approach: 1) developing co-curricular modules to support majors-level quantitative skill development within Earth science courses and programs; 2) organizing faculty professional development for developing and integrating these resources; and 3) conducting educational research on effective implementation strategies and student skill progression and attitudes. Central to the resource design will be the application of math skills to Earth science applications with examples drawn from a variety of sub-disciplines. Module authors having a range of geoscience disciplinary expertise will be recruited to ensure broad applicability of the resulting resources. Assessment and evaluation will be carried out by the project principal investigators and an external evaluator. The modular approach will allow faculty to adopt modules appropriate for their individual courses and help scaffold quantitative skills across geoscience curricula or into dedicated quantitative geoscience courses. The free online module collection will be hosted on the Science Education Resource Center (SERC) site. The project will also work with SERC to improve instructor discovery of existing activity collections in which students can further apply the quantitative skills they have developed using modules written in this project. The NSF IUSE: EHR Program supports research and development projects to improve the effectiveness of STEM education for all students. Through the Engaged Student Learning track, the program supports the creation, exploration, and implementation of promising practices and tools.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.