INSPIRE-ING ENGAGEMENT AND INTEREST IN GEOSCIENCES WITH 7TH - 8TH GRADE UNDERREPRESENTED POPULATIONS OF MISSISSIPPI

The Initiating New Science Partnerships in Rural Education (INSPIRE) Graduate K-12 (GK-12) NSF program at Mississippi State University partners STEM graduate students with local classroom teachers to create engaging activities related to Earth and Space sciences. Current STEM research of INSPIRE graduate students is incorporated into interactive classroom experiences that are aligned to national and state science standards. Inclusion of active research from the Geosciences fields is the leading STEM focus to increase student engagement and interest in the Geosciences with the INSPIRE middle school student of the participating, predominately African American, low socioeconomic status school. Combining experiences of the science educators and researchers generates a creative partnership of ideas and methodologies to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving abilities through interactive learning. Developed inquiry explorations promote practices of authentic science process skills, highlight the diversity of the Geosciences, and incorporate technologies utilized by Geoscientists to capture student curiosity. These research-focused experiences also provide students a scaffolding of the progression and expansion of scientific concepts from middle into high school followed by college and possibly further research.

Graduate student research activities emphasize the relevance of Geosciences in the daily lives of 7^th-8^th grade students as it relates to all primary science areas while striving to increase student interest in Geosciences. Examples of activities include collection/analysis of observations from SkyMaster hand-held weather stations in differing environments and hydrogeology water quality monitoring and GIS images used as a determinant for habitat suitability. INSPIRE graduate students annually develop inquiry activities for National GIS Day, designing and guiding middle school students through GIS explorations focused on hazardous Geosciences events. All activities developed are shared with non-participating teachers as free resources on the INSPIRE web page (www.gk12.mssate.edu), expanding INSPIRE’s outreach of incorporating Geosciences research into activities for various audiences and communities.