ENGAGING AND RECRUITING THE NEXT GENERATION OF GEOSCIENTISTS BY USING REAL-LIFE EXPERIENCES AND APPLICATIONS

Recruiting and retaining students is an ongoing challenge that can be difficult because geoscience may not be taught in high school and may not be seen as relevant by prospective students or their families. Add to that, the perception that “science is hard,” and recruiting students to major in the geosciences becomes even more difficult.

To address those difficulties, the geoscience community needs to ensure that children and teens encounter geology not only in the K-12 classroom but in less formal settings including summer camps, after school activities, and youth organizations. In addition, geoscientists need to be active in communities by sharing information that is interesting and useful to the community. In all of these settings, linking geoscience knowledge to local interests and concerns is crucial to success. Relating the science to the setting sparks interest and shows relevance and practical application.

In real-life, the process should begin with listening. Listening to find out what students and community members are interested in and concerned about as well as what they know and how they perceive their environment provides important knowledge, shows respect, and allows the geoscientist become more deeply engaged. That engagement goes both ways, and when people and their community are engaged, some members of the community are more likely to consider entering the field to learn more and to bring the science back to their community.

In more formal educational settings, this means bringing real-life examples from the students’ communities into the classroom and allowing students to do research in real-life settings in their communities. Community examples can be concerns such as hazards and resources, interests such as local rocks, minerals, fossils, and history, and issues such as siting and safety. Students can be encouraged to incorporate local knowledge and discuss how it aligns with scientific understanding. The level of structure provided by the educator should be minimized to allow students to become fully engaged in the process and follow the lead of the project as researchers do. “Mapping the Environment with Sensory Perception” (https://serc.carleton.edu/integrate/teaching_materials/map_sense/index.html) will be discussed as an example of this type of research project.