PROMOTING DIVERSITY, EQUITY, INCLUSION, AND ACCESSIBILITY IN INTRODUCTORY GEOLOGY COURSES THROUGH OPEN-ACCESS MATERIALS AND VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS

The University of Houston (UH) is a large, public university that is ranked 8^th nationally in diversity according to the U.S. News & World Report, 2021 and is a Hispanic-serving and Asian American and Pacific Islander-serving Institution. As a result, introductory courses in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences are uniquely positioned to address inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility in geosciences. Recognizing this opportunity, we have developed materials and improved programs to help address these issues, including creating an open-access lab manual for historical geology, creating new and improving existing virtual field trips for physical geology, and improving student experiences.

Open access publication offers unique opportunities for addressing accessibility and equity issues. We developed an open-access lab book for our historical geology class entitled “The Story of Earth: An Observational Guide” with these ideas in mind. The lab manual is self-published and incorporates accessibility guidelines for imagery and text, with free PDF and low-cost printing options. We first taught with our new open-access text during Fall 2020 as an online version because of COVID-19. This past fall semester was the first time we used the lab manual in a face-to-face lab section. The feedback from students from both versions has been mainly positive, suggesting our book is very approachable. Polling shows that students largely agree that the lab manual is clear and engaging, easy to understand, and has helpful imagery.

While we typically offer several in-person field trip options, over 1,000 students take physical geology every semester, and providing each student with a field experience is not logistical. Therefore, over the past few years, we have revamped our existing virtual field trip to central TX, developed a new virtual field trip for the Galveston region, and created a new virtual tour of rock and building stones on the UH campus. These virtual field trip options are used in our physical geology classes and provide an excellent alternative to in-person field trips, especially for students who are not physically able to attend or are too financially limited to miss a day of work to attend. Future work will focus on improving these materials and quantitatively assessing their impact.