GP-EXTRA: Building an affective pathway to the geosciences through experiential learning opportunities for non-geoscience majors

GP-EXTRA：通过为非地球科学专业的体验式学习机会建立通往地球科学的情感途径

• 批准号: 1540702
• 负责人: Kelly Lazar
• 金额: $ 49.99万
• 依托单位: Clemson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2021-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1540702&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: GP; EXTRA; Building; affective; pathway

A strong workforce in the geosciences is needed today more than ever if America is to overcome resource security challenges for water, food, and energy in the face of global change and widespread land use transitions. Despite this critical need, there is a deficit of students opting to pursue geoscience-related career paths. The overarching goal of this project is to increase the number of students at Clemson University intending to pursue a geoscience-related career by providing opportunities for both Geology majors and non-majors to engage in career-relevant geoscience research. The approach that is being taken focuses on accessing the affective domain of learning as a mechanism to increase student engagement with the geosciences, via student motivation, emotion, and connections to Earth. Targeting non-geoscience majors in this project is an important goal as they represent a large population of students that are often exposed to the geosciences through service (e.g., general education) courses, but rarely have an opportunity to participate in field or research activities, both of which are well known to be important doorways to careers in geoscience. This project enables thousands of students to be exposed to geoscience research and STEM communication, thereby making a significant impact on the development of the geoscience workforce in South Carolina. A new Industrial Affiliates program further engages students with existing geoscience professionals to promote student selection of careers in geoscience-related areas. This project addresses the deficit in the geoscience workforce by creating a three tier extracurricular approach to gradually transform non-majors into geoscientists by leveraging the existing undergraduate research component of Clemson's Geology Bachelor's (BS) degree. The first tier of engages non-major students enrolled in geoscience service courses in extracurricular inquiry-based thinking that draws on the research activities of Clemson's undergraduate geoscience majors. Building on this effort, students recruited to the second tier of engagement take part in non-major oriented project-based learning activities that utilize a "citizen science" approach to data collection, geoscience problem solving with GIS, or geoscience communication and outreach. Students transitioned into the third tier of the program take part in formal undergraduate geoscience research projects. Investing in Clemson's current research program not only strengthens research experiences for current Geology majors, but also provides more diverse, engaging and interesting projects to attract non-majors. For example, the project enables cutting-edge science questions to be addressed in areas ranging across the fields of climate change, water sustainability, geomechanics, and geochemistry. The newly-developed Industrial Affiliates program further strengthens the outcomes of both this project and the undergraduate BS degree program through: professional lectures, co-mentoring of student projects and internships, and evaluation of student preparation for careers in the geosciences. Building on the existing BS degree program also allows the project to leverage Clemson's geoscience majors as ambassadors to non-majors and geoscience professionals, thereby strengthening the overall geoscience community in South Carolina. The activities in this project build on best-practices developed in the geoscience education literature and contribute to this body of research by studying how the affective domain of learning contributes to student motivation in pursuing a career in the geosciences.

如果美国要克服资源安全挑战，面对全球变化和广泛的土地利用过渡，今天比以往任何时候都需要在地球科学的强大劳动力。 尽管需要这种迫切的需求，但仍有学生选择追求与地球科学相关的职业道路的赤字。 该项目的总体目标是增加克莱姆森大学的学生人数，旨在通过为地质学专业和非职业生涯提供与职业与职业相关的地球科学研究的机会，从事与地球科学有关的职业。 所采用的方法集中在于通过学生的动机，情感和与地球的联系来访问学习的情感领域，以增加学生参与地球科学的机制。 在该项目中，针对非地球科学专业是一个重要的目标，因为他们代表了大量的学生，这些学生通常通过服务（例如，通用教育）课程接触地球科学，但很少有机会参加现场或研究活动，这两者都是众所周知的，这是对地球科学的重要门口。 该项目使成千上万的学生能够接受地球科学研究和STEM沟通，从而对南卡罗来纳州的地球科学劳动力的发展产生重大影响。 一项新的工业分支机构计划进一步吸引了现有地球科学专业人员的学生，以促进与地球科学相关地区的学生选择。 该项目通过创建一种三层课外方法来解决地球科学劳动力的赤字，通过利用克莱姆森地质学士学位（BS）学位的现有本科研究成分，逐渐将非议员转变为地球科学家。 第一层与非律师的学生一起参加了基于课外探究的思维，该课程借鉴了克莱姆森本科生地球科学专业的研究活动。 在这项工作的基础上，招募到第二层参与的学生参加了非大会的基于项目的学习活动，这些学习活动利用了“公民科学”方法来收集数据收集，使用GIS解决地球科学问题或地球科学沟通和外展活动。 过渡到该计划的第三层的学生参加了正式的本科地球科学研究项目。 投资克莱姆森（Clemson）当前的研究计划不仅增强了当前地质专业的研究经验，而且还提供了更多样化，引人入胜且有趣的项目来吸引非临时。 例如，该项目可以在气候变化，水可持续性，地球力学和地球化学领域的领域中解决尖端的科学问题。 新开发的工业分支机构计划通过：专业的讲座，学生项目和实习机会以及对地球科学职业的学生准备的评估，进一步加强了该项目和本科学士学位课程的结果。 在现有的BS学位课程的基础上，该项目还可以利用Clemson的地球科学专业的大使担任非硕士和地球科学专业人员的大使，从而加强了南卡罗来纳州的整个地球科学社区。 该项目中的活动建立在地球科学教育文献中开发的最佳实践基础上，并通过研究学习的情感领域如何有助于学生从事地球科学事业的动力，从而为这项研究做出了贡献。