ADVANCING EARTH SCIENCE AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN SOUTHEASTERN MICHIGAN THROUGH ACADEMIC OUTREACH: PERSPECTIVES FROM UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT ASSISTANTS

Academic outreach within a community can be highly effective in providing quality academic experiences and can be valuable in overcoming socio-environmental deficiencies. Detroit Public Schools have a staggeringly low graduation rate, at less than 25% each year, and this statistic, coupled with the region’s transformation to a highly urbanized environment, presents unique challenges (and opportunities) for both educational and environmental sustainability. For this reason, a number of outreach programs offered by the University of Michigan-Dearborn (UM-D) focus on enriching underrepresented and underserved populations within the K-12 education system of Detroit and SE Michigan. In particular, two NSF funded outreach programs, Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) and the Geosciences Institute for Research and Education (GIRE), aim to increase enthusiasm for geoscience and technology within metropolitan Detroit.

Although the focus of geoscience outreach is typically on the participants, undergraduate student assistants can contribute to the overall experience while, at the same time, enriching their own academic endeavors. This poster displays the contributions and perspectives of two undergraduate students who are actively engaged in two outreach programs by developing lesson plans and program materials, interacting with and mentoring participants, and collaborating with geology and education faculty at UM-D. Through the ITEST program, the undergraduate assistants developed a lesson plan that uses Google Earth to engage high school students in concepts related to plate tectonics and geospatial information. The student assistants helped the high school students use these new concepts and skills to construct research questions, which resulted in submissions to a school science fair. Through the GIRE program, the undergraduate student assistants collaborated with science teachers on their own research projects. As an example, an undergraduate project that resulted in the design of a new water sampling device was integrated into the field experience for the science teachers. Results from each program are presented, including sample materials, reflections from the student assistants, and suggestions for integrating undergraduates into outreach programs.