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

协作研究：地球科学专业学生在需要时需要的数学：提高未来地球科学劳动力的定量技能

• 批准号: 2336447
• 负责人: Rory McFadden
• 金额: $ 10.39万
• 依托单位: Carleton College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-08-01 至 2025-11-30
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2336447&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Math; Your; Earth

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.

该项目将通过加强地球科学专业本科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。这是一个关于学生参与学习的二级项目。具有定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，例如学生的准备不平衡、数学先修课程的掌握、教师的掌握等。没有接受过教授定量技能、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的培训，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。通过多管齐下的方法提高地球科学本科生的定量技能和信心：1）开发课外模块，支持地球科学课程和项目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； ; 和3）对有效的实施策略和学生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，并从具有一系列地球科学的各个子学科模块作者中提取示例。将招募学科专家，以确保项目主要研究人员和外部评估员对所产生的资源进行广泛的适用性。模块化方法将使教师能够为他们的个人课程采用适当的模块，并帮助提高定量技能。跨地球科学课程或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，改进教师对现有活动集合的发现，使学生可以进一步应用他们所掌握的定量技能。 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。通过参与式学生学习轨道，该计划支持有前途的创造、探索和实施。实践和工具。该奖项反映了通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，NSF 的法定使命被认为值得支持。