VIRTUAL GEOSCIENCE OUTREACH: WHAT TO DO WHEN YOUR GEOSCIENCE MOBILE IS GROUNDED

As with many Geoscience departments, the New Mexico Tech Earth & Environmental Science Department has struggled to attract students into the Earth Sciences. Our experience has shown that one of the more effective recruiting strategies is attendance at STEM events such as Science Olympiad or the Systems Go Rocket Launch program. It is easier to engage with students attending those events if there are attractive displays such as rock samples, models, and microscopes to view thin sections.

We received a grant from the Halliburton Foundation to develop a STEM outreach program centered around a Geoscience Mobile, a dedicated trailer filled with geoscience activities, scientific equipment, and a stellar rock collection. However, COVID-19 travel restrictions put a halt to the Geoscience Mobile site visits, so we had to adapt our outreach program to a completely online Virtual Geoscience Roadshow.

The original project vision entailed hands-on activities conducted with professors and geology students. The main objective in transforming the project to online is to offer content that provides activities that could be done within current social distancing protocols. The reformat of the project combines videos from field locations, photos of rock samples, and Google Earth fly-throughs. Rock kits for teachers and their students, along with take-home information sheets, will be mailed instead of handed out during site visits.

The component that presented an immediate challenge in the adaptation was finding non-geoscience specialists such as a videographer and a web designer. Another major challenge was selecting the optimal educational levels as we were losing the face-to-face interaction with students and could not modify content on the fly. Additionally, the ability to invite other New Mexico Tech departments to join the outreach "visits" became complicated.

These challenges are currently being addressed as we pilot the Virtual Geoscience Roadshow - how to personalize the experience for students, the logistics to Zoom into a classroom, and how to include other New Mexico Tech STEM disciplines. The website release date is September 30. The next steps will be to assess materials that have been developed, modify as needed, and re-pilot.