Incorporation of geoscience topics in STEM programs supporting underrepresented minority students in Los Angeles
Abstract
Since the geosciences are lagging behind other STEM disciplines in the engagement, recruitment, and retention of traditionally underrepresented and underserved communities, there is much work to be done. The University of Southern California Joint Educational Project's (JEP) STEM programs works to incorporate geoscience concepts learned from the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) School of Rock (SOR) onboard the JOIDES Resolution research vessel. SOR is a professional development program for educators that works in conjunction with the deep ocean drilling ship that collects cores from the sea floor. Geoscience themes were drawn from SOR learning materials and incorporated into the JEP K-5 curriculum focus areas on micropaleontology, sedimentology, plate tectonics, paleoceanography, and paleoclimatology. Because climate change affects all citizens, connecting the geosciences to underrepresented students with authentic IODP data can lead to more effective and inclusive dissemination of geoscience information to diverse audiences.
The IODP materials will be incorporated into one of the main programs through the lens of NGSS aligned geoscience curriculum. This will include demonstrating replica cores to discuss how geoscientists study the bottom of the ocean as a pristine non-eroded record of geologic time. Additionally, the JOIDES based geoscience children's books were incorporated into the program to increase STEM literacy. This project will report on progress and challenges thus far, and include other results from JEP STEM programming for underrepresented communities in Southern California.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMED12A..03K
- Keywords:
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- 0810 Post-secondary education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0850 Geoscience education research;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATIONDE: 6630 Workforce;
- PUBLIC ISSUES