THE SOUTH BAY GEO-DIVERSITY PROJECT: EARTH SCIENCE FOR ALL STUDENTS

The South Bay Geo-Diversity Project, a 2-year pilot program funded by NSF's OEDG initiative, merges a successful, well-established professional development program for teachers with a new student-centered component to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in geoscience education and research.

The primary objectives of the SBGDP pilot program were to: (1) team with SJSU's MESA Program to provide underrepresented students with enrichment activities in the geosciences; (2) offer professional development workshops for teachers and support their teaching of geoscience with appropriate materials; (3) partner with local feeder colleges to engage introductory students in active learning experiences and inform them of educational and career opportunities in the geosciences; (4) involve high-school and college students in geoscience research projects; and (5) furnish partial scholarships to students who pursue a geoscience degree at SJSU.

Completed components of the SBGDP pilot study included the following: (1) a summer 2003 workshop for 13 pre-college teachers, and a summer 2004 workshop for 17 teachers and 11 students in grades 6–10. (2) class visits to introductory earth science classes at feeder colleges; (3) two all-day field trips for students and teachers; and (4) paid internships for community college students who assisted SJSU Geology faculty members on local research projects.

Lessons learned from the pilot study guided a significantly revised 5-year proposal to OEDG in Fall 2004. The two main changes: (1) Switch from a more scattershot approach to a multi-level partnership with National Hispanic University and its college prep academy (staff and teachers actively recruit their students and teachers for the workshops, field trips, and other program components); (2) Teachers and students will attend separate 2-week summer workshops (combined workshops were logistically inefficient and not as pedagogically effective as they could have been).