USING A PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM MODEL AND FIELD-BASED EXPERIENCES TO CREATE A NETWORK OF URBAN YOUTH ENGAGED IN THE GEOSCIENCES: PROJECT METALS

Cross-university collaborations in geoscience formed between San Francisco State University, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of New Orleans have resulted in a dynamic network and a high-impact opportunity for high school students from different urban settings to meet and learn geoscience in field settings. Called project METALS, the Minority Education Through Traveling and Learning in the Sciences program promotes excitement about geoscience and has helped to shape and shift student attitudes and orientation toward geoscience, during and beyond the field experiences. Findings from across four years of the METALS program show that multiple aspects of this program were highly effective.

A review of the METALS summative evaluation shows a distinct pattern of high to moderately high impact on the student cohorts from the San Francisco Bay Area, El Paso, and New Orleans over a four-year period. METALS, overall, was perceived by participants as a program that: (1) opens up new opportunities for urban youth who might not typically be able to experience science in outdoor settings; (2) offers high-interest geology content in field contexts, along with social, cultural, and environmental connections; (3) promotes excitement about geology in field settings while encouraging the development of mutual respect, interdependence, and trust among individuals of different ethnicities; and (4) influences the academic choices of minority students, in particular their choice of major and course selection in college. The program accomplishments are strengthened by the collective knowledge of the university partners and by faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, scientists, and science teachers who guide the field trips and who are committed to encouraging diversity in the geosciences.