FILLING THE GEOSCIENCE STUDENT PIPELINE: UTILIZING NON-FIELD CAMP FIELD COURSES FOR RECRUITMENT AND RETENTION OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE GEOSCIENCES

Recruiting and retaining undergraduate students in the geosciences is a growing challenge to our ability to sustain a vibrant and effective geoscience workforce for the future. Field trips, field work, and field camps are crucial components of geoscience education, but with the increasing costs associated with field-based activities, these components of undergraduate education are often the first programs to be cut. Field experiences were often the critical incident for many of us working in industry or academia, where we chose to become a geoscientist, and they remain critical experiences to provide our students in the future.

At the University of Iowa, through a National Science Foundation – Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) Grant, we recently introduced a series of levelled ‘non-field camp’ field courses to our curriculum in an effort to improve student awareness of, engagement with, and professional preparation for a career in the geosciences. In addition to our annual National Parks Field Trip for non-majors, these new courses have begun to slowly increase the number of students within the program as both majors and minors. Albeit this effort is still early in its implementation, the initial data suggest that the increased field opportunities for both majors and non-majors have begun to play a positive role in recruitment and retention of geoscience students at the University of Iowa. Longer-term tracking of the program, as well as individual students, will eventually demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of this program.