Geological Society of America

T78 Supporting Geoscience Student Transfer Between Institutions and Transitions into the Workforce: Pathways to Success (Posters)

Sunday, 22 October 2017
9:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Halls 4EF

A COMPARISON OF TWO PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES, TRADITIONAL LECTURE VS. PROJECT-BASED, AND HOW THEIR APPROACH AFFECTS STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

Paper number: T78-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Edgar Garza Presenting Author
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Kiara Gomez
Austin, TX
Marla Hibbits
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Kathy Ellins
The University of Texas at AustinJackson School of Geosciences, Austin, TX
Matthew Hofer
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Alison Mote
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Vashan Wright
Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX
Michael Arratia
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Lauren Oefinger
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Cynthia Maye
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
Enrique Reyes
The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX

Abstract

Since 2005 GeoFORCE Texas, a geology-based outreach program in the Jackson School of Geosciences, has taken secondary students from minority-serving high schools in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Southwest Texas, and the Bahamas on weeklong summer geology field trips throughout the U.S. Students transitioning from 8th – 9th grade are recruited into the program and ideally remain in GeoFORCE for four years. The program, supported by contributions from industry partners, aims to engage and empower underrepresented students by exposing them to experiences that are different from their home and school environment. In 2016, fifty-five percent of GeoFORCE students and alumni were Hispanic, nineteen percent are African American, and overall the program consists of fifty-seven percent female and eighty percent minority students.

Since the program’s inception, GeoFORCE Texas has relied on a traditional stand-and-deliver lecture model of instruction set outside the normal four walls of a classroom at geologic outcrops in state and national parks. Faculty present lectures to reinforce the content in field trip guidebooks. Each evening the program quizzes the students on the previous day’s lectures and field stops, with a final quiz at the end of the trip to gauge knowledge gains. During the summer of 2017, the program piloted a project-based model of instruction with the rising 12th Grade GeoFORCE students in order to promote active learning and encourage final-year students to apply what they had learned on previous field trips to a new setting. In addition, instead of a single faculty responsible for the instruction, a team of six instructors comprising geoscience experts, master teachers, and undergraduate geology students delivered the instruction on the 12th grade trips. The poster compares and contrasts GeoFORCE Texas’ initial model with the model implemented on the 12th grade field trips, describes the preparation of the instructional team, and presents preliminary outcomes on student learning and engagement.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-306471

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