Oceans of Opportunity: Partnerships to Increase Minority Student Involvement in the Marine Geosciences

The Oceans of Opportunity program to increase involvement of traditionally under-represented students in the marine geosciences is in its final phase of track 1 funding from NSF. The program employs a tiered approach to research, teaching and outreach activities to enhance the K-12 to graduate pipeline. Partner institutions include Savannah State University, an HBCU in coastal Georgia; Adelphi University serving a minority population from NYC; the Georgia State University Bio-Bus serving the metro-Atlanta area; and the Joint Oceanographic Institutions. The Oceans of Opportunity education pipeline includes 1) service learning activities implemented by SSU marine science majors in partner public schools with high minority enrollment; 2) outreach by the Georgia State University Bio-Bus to Savannah area schools; 3) expansion of the SSU geoscience curriculum; and 4) development of activities based on models of ODP cores for use in both outreach and college teaching. Service learning through SSU classes has permitted contact with a large number of K-12 students. More than 1000 predominantly African-American K-12 students completed hands-on lessons on plate tectonics and plankton contributors to marine sediments in the two years of this program under the guidance of HBCU science majors. Lessons on use of the marine sediment and fossil record as proxies in paleoclimatic studies using replicas of ODP cores were delivered to 600 students in the Savannah school system and about 2000 visitors to the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The marine geoscience lessons delivered at the high school level resulted in greater test score improvement when the topic had already been thoroughly introduced by the teacher. A survey of science attitudes of the high school students (n=419) indicates African-American high school students have low levels of enjoyment of and interest in the sciences. In addition, more female than male African-American students are enrolling in science courses and intend to become science majors. The geosciences fared worse than most other STEM fields with most college-bound students saying that they did not intend on taking a geoscience course in college. We established Research Training Groups (RTGs) including undergraduate and graduate students focusing on 1) Georgia shelf, estuarine and marsh dynamics, and 2) South African Pleistocene paleoceanography. Collaborative projects between SSU and Adelphi during the course of this program have engaged 12 students (75% minority) in research on shelf and salt marsh micropaleontology and sedimentation, diatoms in modern estuarine environments, and South African paleoclimate using ODP records. RTG students have also developed a marine sediment repository at SSU, participated in field excursions and research cruises, and presented their research at conferences.