39 Geoscience Education

Thursday, 3 April 2003
2:15 PM - 4:10 PM

STRATEGIES FOR ENHANCING DIVERSITY IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Paper number: 39-3
Program: THEME SESSIONS
Time: 2:55 PM – 3:15 PM

Authors

Abstract

During our second year of outreach activities, we are continuing a multipronged approach. The activities initiated last year included activities for high school classes and after-school groups such as Advancement Via Independent Determination (AVID), students in Project UPBEAT, field trips for high school and middle school groups, hiring CSUSB students as assistants for tutoring, research projects, and outreach activities, and activities for high school teachers, including a one-week field trip over the summer. We are adding outreach aimed at undeclared majors, and at the Liberal Studies majors who intend to teach elementary school. These latter students can choose a concentration in a number of subjects, so we are highlighting the versatility of earth science as a teaching tool for science in general. To expand high school and middle school outreach, we are organizing a schedule of field trips, and publicizing this via a flyer, as well as posting it on our web site. An ongoing research project involving GPS measurements of fault-related strain accumulation will be expanded to include a week-long seminar for students in the summer prior to the GPS campaign, which will concentrate on relevant geology and tectonics, background to the GPS system, and training with the equipment. A post-campaign seminar on data processing may be offered as well.

CSUSB has been designated a Hispanic-Serving Institution, so we are concentrating considerable effort on serving the Hispanic students on campus, as well as attracting potential students from the surrounding community. To this end, we are developing a bilingual departmental web site, with extensive links to the menu of schedules for outreach activities, and geoscience career information in Spanish. We are cognizant of the need to develop support with the students? families, many of whom may not be comfortable with English. One of the barriers to pursuing a geoscience career that we recognized in our preliminary surveys of CSUSB students, is a lack of awareness of what geologists do, and the wide spectrum of careers possible. To address this, we are developing a series of geoscientists? profiles, similar to that at AGI?s website, but more locally focused, and with the information in English and Spanish. In addition, the outreach flyer mentioned above is being developed in both languages.