Shaking up the Future of Hispanic Students in Rural Southwest Arizona: A Collaborative Research/Teaching Effort Creating a Bridge between Students and the Geosciences

Arizona Western College, Yuma AZ

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Shaking up the future of Hispanic students in rural southwest Arizona Arizona Western College (AWC), a two-year institution situated in rural southwestern Arizona, has a student population of about 62% underrepresented minorities, most of whom are first-generation, low-income students of Hispanic origin. "Shaking up the future of Hispanic students in rural southwest Ariona" is a three-phase geoscience education program to indentify, recruit, and train talented underrepresented students in geoscience. The linchpin of the program is a local reserach-quality seismic network comprising three broadband seismometers. Yuma is situated on the east perimeter of the seismically-active Salton Trough; a transtensional basin located at the southern end of the San Andreas Transform system. Most area residents have felt earthquakes and students in geosciece classes show an interest and enthusiasm in their origin and potential societal impact. The project will recruit local minority high school students by engaging them in a topical sciecne issue that impacts border communities in Arizona and California. The AWC Seismic Observatory in geoscience education is a joint effort of the Arizona Western College and the University of Arizona's Southern Arizona Seismic Observatory (SASO). Phase I of the three-phase program involves an annual 2.5 week summer seismic program where high school students and AWC geoscience majors explore the nature of earthquakes in the field and laboratory. In Phaes II, high school students will bridge up to one AWC's three geoscience programs. As part of the geoscience curriculum, students will work in the seismic observatory with a graduate student from SASO and participate in frequent regional field trips. In Phase III, student participants move to geoscience programs at the University of Arizona or other institutions. The relationships fostered in Phase I and II will serve as an academic bridge connecting AWC students to faculty in the Geoscience Department at the University of Arizona.