CELEBRATING AMS’ EFFORTS TO INCREASE DIVERSITY IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Since 2001, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) has initiated course implementation at minority-serving institutions (MSIs) through NSF-supported Geoscience Diversity/National Dissemination Projects. Most recently, AMS received funding to introduce and enhance geoscience and/or sustainability-focused course components at MSIs through the AMS Climate Studies Diversity Project.

From 2011-2016, the Project introduced AMS Climate Studies to 101 faculty representing 90 MSIs. Via a NSF no-cost extension, a fifth course implementation workshop will be held in May 2017. Each year a cohort of, on average, 25 faculty attended a DC-based course implementation workshop where they were immersed in the course materials, received presentations from high-level speakers and trained as change agents for their local institutions. Following, faculty introduced and enhanced geoscience curricula on their local campuses with course materials.

AMS Climate Studies course materials include the “Our Changing Climate: Introduction to Climate Science” eTextbook, eInvestigations Manual and the RealTime Climate Portal. The eTextbook and eInvestigations Manual draw heavily from recently released IPCC and National Climate Assessment reports. The RealTime Climate Portal contains links to climate data as well as scholarship and career information for students.

Faculty were then invited to the following AMS Annual Meeting to report on their course implementation progress, reconnect with their colleagues and learn new science presented at the meeting.

The AMS Climate Studies Diversity Project builds on highly successful, NSF-supported diversity projects for the AMS Weather and Ocean courses conducted from 2001-2008. Together, these courses have reached 220 MSIs and nearly 100,000 students.

That success led to collaborations with Consortium for Ocean Leadership and several colleges and universities on the NSF-supported MSI-REaCH (Reconstructing Earth's Climate History) program, which focuses on paleoclimate data gained through ocean sediment cores. MSI-REaCH provides substantive professional development for MSI faculty, most of whom have participated in AMS Diversity Projects, and serve to enhance research-type experiences for students at participating institutions.