WORKSHOP INITIAL REPORT: EXPANDING THE GEOSCIENCE PIPELINE BY CONNECTING EDUCATORS WITH EARLY CAREER IODP SCIENTISTS

The U.S. faces significant challenges in attracting, retaining and diversifying the workforce in the geosciences. A likely contributing factor is the homogeneity of the pool of mentors/role models available both within the workforce and in the U.S. professoriate. Another probable factor is “exposure gaps” among U.S. student populations; i.e., differing access to engaging facets of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In response, this group organized an 18-day School of Rock workshop onboard the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution during a July 2017 transit in the western Pacific. Our objectives were diversity driven, focusing on measures to broaden participation at all levels (i.e., K-12, undergraduate and beyond) in innovative ways (e.g., from place-base curriculum to longitudinal peer mentoring through extracurricular STEM communities). To move towards these goals, we designed a recruiting scheme to attract pairs of participants, specifically a teacher from a diverse community and a nearby early-career scientist with an interest in IODP science. By partnering in this way we sought to foster connections that might not naturally emerge, and therein to establish new mechanisms for increased engagement, broader recruitment, enhanced support, and improved retention of students from underrepresented communities from the middle school level to the undergraduate and graduate levels and beyond into the workplace. We report on initial workshop outcomes that include new curriculum proposals, nascent funding proposals, and innovative connections among secondary educators and early-career scientists. Survey results from our participants will shed light on expected longer-term impacts of both this specific workshop and the workshop model on perceptions and on plans for future actions aimed at broadening participation.