DUAL CREDIT GEOSCIENCE COURSES: PRIME VENUES FOR BROADER IMPACT ACTIVITIES

Many investigators struggle to find ideas for activities to satisfy NSF’s requirement for “broader impacts.” How does one “advance discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training, and learning,” “broaden participation of underrepresented groups,” and provide “benefits … to society?” Dual credit courses offer an outstanding avenue to accomplish these goals. The SUNY College at Oneonta has operated a dual credit program called ESOP (Earth Science Outreach Program) since 2005. Over 600 high school students from 13 school districts have earned college credit for geoscience courses through ESOP. Preliminary data (Ebert 2009, 2011) indicate that nearly 20% of ESOP students go on to major in one of the geosciences in college.

High school students in ESOP earn college credit through SUNY Oneonta and high school credit that counts toward their graduation. High school teachers in the local schools teach the dual credit courses with oversight from the college. Such college-high school partnerships provide a direct connection between geoscience investigators and K-12 teachers and students, through which current geoscience research can be disseminated. This research content serves as professional development for K-12 teachers and promotes learning with respect to recent findings for K-12 students. Dual credit partnerships with high schools that serve large numbers of students from historically underrepresented groups help address NSF’s goal of broadening participation. The societal benefits of dual credit courses are twofold. Students from dual credit courses may become geoscience professionals that enter the workforce, which helps address the national shortage of geoscientists, an important broader impact. Although the majority of dual credit students may not become geoscientists, their participation in these courses improves the overall geoscience literacy of the public.

Currently, SUNY Oneonta’s Earth Science Outreach Program is undergoing further expansion with the aid of an NSF Geo Ed grant (GEO 1035062). Additional information regarding ESOP and dual credit geoscience courses is available at http://employees.oneonta.edu/ebertjr/ESOP.htm.