EFFECTIVENESS OF A SCIENCE AGRICULTURAL SUMMER EXPERIENCE IN ATTRACTING RURAL NEW MEXICAN STUDENTS TO THE GEOSCIENCES

Here we report three years of results from a two-week Science Agricultural Summer Experience (SASE) program funded by the USDA Hispanic Serving Institutions Initiative. The project recruited regional high school and community college transfer students to participate in a summer institute exposing them to content and careers in the geosciences. The program goals were to grow interest in the geosciences among New Mexican youth prior to or early in their college career and spur a long-term increase in the number of students entering the geosciences from demographic groups (Hispanic and Native American) that are greatly under-represented in the geosciences workforce. The program provided students with an opportunity to conduct hands-on field studies in the geosciences and encouraged students to pursue a degree and an eventual career in a geoscience field. NMHU is situated on the Great Plains where the prairie meets the Rocky Mountains (Santa Fe National Forest). The region consists of rich but fragile native grasslands which have been used for agriculture by American Indians as early as 7000 years ago and expanded to farms and ranches by Hispanics in the 1500s. Both groups struggle to preserve their practices, handle legal issues over land and water rights, and apply modern technology on their land. The SASE curriculum included field-based experiential learning modules in Soil Science, Surveying and GIS, and Water Science that used the local agricultural culture and traditions as a learning framework. Our anecdotal data suggest that a curriculum that makes connections between students’ lives and their families and communities is an effective means of building natural resources management awareness and recruiting students into the geosciences. Pre- and post-experience surveys indicate that the summer program clearly had a positive impact on the participants’ impressions of the geosciences, but whether this is enough to convince them to choose a geoscience major or geoscience career is unclear. We continue to track the participants’ college choices to assess the effectiveness of the summer program as a strategy for enhancing and diversifying the national pipeline for geoscientists.