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在定量技能和推理方面的熟练程度和信心，从而服务于美国的国家利益，从而培养更好地了解地球过程并为地球科学职业生涯做好准备的学生。这是参与式学生学习路径上的第2级项目。具备数量技能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，数学技能在地球科学背景下的应用充满了困难，如学生准备不均，把关数学必修课，没有接受过教授定量技能的培训的教师，学生数学焦虑，以及将数学技能转移到特定科学背景的认知困难。该项目将开发所需的课程资源和教师专业发展，以显著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提高地球科学本科生的量化技能和信心：1)开发联合课程模块，以支持地球科学课程和计划中专业水平的量化技能发展；2)组织教师专业发展以开发和整合这些资源；以及3)就有效的实施战略和学生技能进步和态度进行教育研究。资源设计的核心将是将数学技能应用于地球科学应用，并提供来自不同分学科的例子。将征聘具有各种地球科学学科专门知识的单元作者，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一名外部评估员进行。模块化方法将允许教员采用适合其个别课程的模块，并帮助在地学课程中或在专门的定量地学课程中培养量化技能。免费的在线模块集合将在科学教育资源中心(SERC)网站上托管。该项目还将与SERC合作，以改进教师对现有活动集合的发现，在这些活动中，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量化技能。NSF IUSE：EHR计划支持研究和开发项目，以提高所有学生的STEM教育的有效性。通过参与的学生学习路径，该计划支持有前景的实践和工具的创建、探索和实施。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。

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.