GP-IN: Empowering Appalachian Students through the Exploring Geosciences Solutions (EGeoS) Curriculum and the Appalachian Geoscience Learning Ecosystem (AGLE)

应对气候变化影响和能源转型的新兴"绿色"经济部门需要一支受过环境和地球科学高等教育培训的劳动力队伍;然而，存在系统性障碍，妨碍公平获得这种培训。特别是，这些障碍往往将第一代大学生排除在历史上代表性不足的身份之外。作为促进公平进入绿色地球科学职业领域的一种手段，该项目旨在建立一个阿巴拉契亚地球科学学习生态系统（AGLE），该生态系统将支持阿巴拉契亚所有身份和背景的高中理科学生获得必要的中学后环境和地球科学培训。中央吸引高中学生的AGLE是探索地球科学解决方案（EGeoS）课程，将与各种西弗吉尼亚州下一代科学高中科学标准，包括地球和空间科学，生物学，化学，物理学和物理科学。环境和地球科学职业是需要中学后STEM学位的高薪职业，实现社会正义需要刻意干预，以引导和支持学生接受这些职业所需的培训。该项目的目标是：1）提供经验，帮助大学预科学生更成功地过渡到本科地球科学课程; 2）创建机制，让高层次的高中学生参与展示地球科学作为一个可行的职业道路的经验;和3）为教师提供经验，以获得地球科学内容在课堂上使用。该团队计划以多种方式实施该项目，包括分析参与者获得的知识，提供与气候相关的研究机会，并衡量这些经验对职业选择的影响。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。

Emerging “green” economic sectors that address climate change impacts and the energy transition require a workforce with environmental and geoscience post-secondary training; however, systemic barriers exist that prevent equitable access to this training. In particular, these barriers tend to exclude first-generation college students from historically underrepresented identities. As a means to facilitate equitable access to green geoscience career fields, this project aims to establish an Appalachian Geoscience Learning Ecosystem (AGLE) that will support Appalachian high school science students of all identities and backgrounds in their path to acquiring necessary post-secondary environmental and geoscience training. Central to attracting high school students to the AGLE is the Exploring Geosciences Solutions (EGeoS) Curriculum that will be aligned to a variety of West Virginia Next Generation Science high school science standards including Earth and Space Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science. Environmental and geoscience careers are high-paying occupations that require a postsecondary STEM degree, and achieving social justice requires deliberate interventions to orient and support students in the training these occupations will require. The goals of this project are to: 1) provide experiences that help pre-college students transition more successfully into undergraduate geoscience programs; 2) create mechanisms to engage upper-level high school students in experiences that demonstrate the geosciences as a viable career path; and 3) provide experiences for teachers to gain geoscience content for use in the classroom. The team plans to implement the project in several ways, including analyzing knowledge gains by participants and providing climate related research opportunities and measuring impacts of those experiences on career choice.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.