THE EVOLUTION OF GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH PROGRAMS FOR INCOMING AND FIRST-YEAR UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS AT WEBER STATE UNIVERSITY, NORTHERN UTAH

The GETUP (Geoscience Education Targeting Underrepresented Populations) program is an NSF funded project designed to develop and assess the effectiveness of a multifaceted approach, integrating outreach to high school students, a summer bridge program, community engaged learning, early introduction to student research, and support of student cohorts, designed to increase recruitment, engagement, and ultimately graduation rates and career placement of Earth and environmental science majors at Weber State University in northern Utah. Two components of the project, the summer bridge and research programs, were designed to introduce and the build student confidence with designing, conducting and presenting geoscience research. Field work and sampling locations were also used by faculty to development virtual field trips that have been integrated into assignments in general education courses, where large field trips are difficult or impossible, as well as supplemental materials used before or after field excursions in other courses.

The summer bridge program ran for two weeks during the summer and provided students with an introduction to the WSU campus, available student services, initial advising, and an early collaborative research. It was first designed with long regional field trips to Bryce Canyon and Yellowstone National Parks, but eventually evolved to entirely local project in the regional watershed and Great Salt Lake basin making it less intimidating and more accessible for incoming students.

The summer research program was four weeks long and targeted students in the first year of their geoscience degree. The research revolved around in-depth field and lab research on the Great Salt Lake ecosystem, using data collected from a field observatory at Antelope Island State Park that provided real-time geochemical data from the lake. Students were involved in analyzing field station data as well as collecting and analyzing environmental chemistry and microbiology samples from the lake, including alkalinity, inorganic and organic carbon, major ions, cell counts, and photosynthetic efficiency. The summer research students also act as peer mentors for students in the summer bridge. Data from field sites for both of these programs have been integrated into virtual field trips and assignments that are utilized in multiple courses.