ONLINE COURSES AND THE UNIVERSITY SYSTEM OF GEORGIA STEM INITIATIVE AT GEORGIA PERIMETER COLLEGE

Georgia Perimeter College, a multi-campus institution, is among the fastest-growing metropolitan two year colleges (2YC) in the nation. With more than 25,000 students, GPC is the largest 2YC in Georgia, the third-largest institution in the University System of Georgia (USG), and with nearly 15,000 freshmen, it has Georgia’s largest freshman class by far. GPC’s online program is the largest in Georgia with more than 8000 students enrolled. Physical and Historical Geology lecture and laboratory courses were among the first courses to be offered, when online instruction began at the college in 1998. Subsequently, Earth and Space Science for Middle School Teachers was offered as an online course to provide statewide professional development for in service teachers.

GPC is one of eleven institutions funded to participate in the USG STEM Initiative (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). The goals of the initiative are (1) to increase the number of K-12 students who plan to major in STEM subjects in college, (2) to increase the success rates of STEM students and the number of students who pursue STEM majors in college, and (3) to prepare more K-12 teachers in STEM disciplines. In support of this initiative, we offer STEM faculty fellowships or small grants for (1) Teaching Innovation and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and (2) Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) in which higher education faculty work together within or across disciplines, and in which higher ed faculty work with K-12 teachers. Our activities include involving STEM students in service learning projects with K-12 schools, working collaboratively with local K-12 school systems on teacher professional development, working collaboratively with the GA Department of Education, and participating with four-year colleges and universities in statewide and regional STEM Institutes for faculty development.

STEM Initiative projects specifically related to Geoscience include a Google Earth PLC consisting of college faculty plus middle and high school teachers, a PLC including a local environmental-themed high school and Arabia Mountain National Heritage area, and faculty developing of a set of self-guided mineral identification kits for check-out by local teachers in collaboration with a local mineral club.