Resources to Transform Undergraduate Geoscience Education: Activities in Support of Earth, Oceans and Atmospheric Sciences Faculty, and Future Plans

The NSF offers funding programs that support geoscience education spanning atmospheric, oceans, and Earth sciences, as well as environmental science, climate change and sustainability, and research on learning. The 'Resources to Transform Undergraduate Geoscience Education' (RTUGeoEd) is an NSF Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM (TUES) Type 2 special project aimed at supporting college-level geoscience faculty at all types of institutions. The project's goals are to carry out activities and create digital resources that encourage the geoscience community to submit proposals that impact their courses and classroom infrastructure through innovative changes in instructional practice, and contribute to making transformative changes that impact student learning outcomes and lead to other educational benefits. In the past year information sessions were held during several national and regional professional meetings, including the GSA Southeastern and South-Central Section meetings. A three-day proposal-writing workshop for faculty planning to apply to the TUES program was held at the University of South Florida - Tampa. During the workshop, faculty learned about the program and key elements of a proposal, including: the need to demonstrate awareness of prior efforts within and outside the geosciences and how the proposed project builds upon this knowledge base; need to fully justify budget and role of members of the project team; project evaluation and what matters in selecting a project evaluator; and effective dissemination practices. Participants also spent time developing their proposal benefitting from advice and feedback from workshop facilitators. Survey data gathered from workshop participants point to a consistent set of challenges in seeking grant support for a desired educational innovation, including poor understanding of the educational literature, of available funding programs, and of learning assessment and project evaluation. Many also noted that their institutions did not recognize the value of education-related scholarly activities, or undervaluing it compared to more traditional research activities. Given this reality, faculty desire strategies for balancing their time to allow time to pursue both. The current restructuring of NSF educational programs raises questions regarding future directions and the scale of support that may be available from the proposed Catalyzing Advances in Undergraduate STEM Education (CAUSE) Program. At the time of writing this abstract, specific details have not been communicated, but it appears that CAUSE could encompass components from several programs within the Division of Undergraduate Education's TUES, STEP, and WIDER programs, as well as the Geoscience Education and OEDG programs in the Geosciences Directorate. The RTUGeoEd project will continue to provide support to faculty seeking CAUSE (and other educational funding within DUE).