UTEP's 2019 Pathways to Geoscience Summer Camp for High School Students

Recruiting, retaining, and preparing the next generation of diverse geoscientists requires exposing students to the wide-range of career opportunities and emerging geoscience topics and environmental issues through hands-on activities and research experiences. The geosciences, one of the least diverse Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, address complicated and dynamic Earth systems. Various effective and evidence-based strategies must be employed to engage a diverse student population for the nation to remain a leader in the geosciences. This study describes one such strategy reaching high school students, the Pathways Geosciences High Summer Camp, funded by Shell Oil Company and hosted by the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The camp runs for two weeks for the past three summers (2017, 2018, and 2019), and was based on the Pathways to the Geosciences camp, funded by the National Science Foundation and Shell, that ran from 2002-2012. Themed around interdisciplinary Earth science topics, minority high school students from local schools are immersed in workshops, field trips, and hands-on activities highlighting the city's landmarks and some of the most sought-after careers in geoscience. The camp is mainly planned and coordinated by senior master and PhD students currently pursuing degrees in the Geological Sciences Department at UTEP with the participation and supervision of faculty members. Graduate camp leaders can hone their teaching and managerial skills by placing the responsibility of managing the group and the schedule of activities in order to keep camp participants entertained and organized at all times while meeting the camp's main purpose of recruiting and retaining potential new students. We measure program effectiveness using pre- and post- surveys. Non-parametric statistical analyses of survey responses show strong positive feedback for key program aspects and participant satisfaction. Overall, results from past summer camps demonstrate that the Pathways Geoscience Summer Camp is an effective outreach tool to get local high school students more interested in learning about and pursuing a career in geosciences.