GP-EXTRA: Engaging and retaining students in the geosciences at two-year colleges (2YC) through undergraduate research

Austin Community College, Austin TX

Investigators

Abstract

Though research has been recognized as a high impact, inquiry-based practice to engage and retain undergraduate students, it is largely underutilized in the first two years of instruction. At two-year colleges in particular, students have even fewer opportunities to participate in authentic research projects. The Austin Community College (ACC) project includes the development and implementation of: a Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Course (SUREC) and a field activity that engages students in research experience focused on scientific ocean drilling in their first two years of higher education. The significance of the project is that it will capture the attention of incoming undergraduate students by engaging them in a research-based field activity during the school year and further their research experience through an intense inquiry-based learning in the summer. This will advance the mission of the National Science Foundation's Improving Undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Education - GEOPATHS program by promoting and supporting students to continue in geosciences at the critical junctures. Through a partnership with the University of Texas at Austin, the SUREC program will be open to students in their second year of study. ACC students will conduct research at a laboratory in the department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering (UT PGE). The research experience will begin with guided scientific ocean drilling investigations supported by class explanation, group meetings and related scientific reading assignments. As students identify research topics, lab equipment and procedures, student teams will research more independently. Students will present their research in-lieu of a final exam and also have opportunities to present their work at a local and/or national conference. SUREC and its evaluation materials will be developed over eight months, followed by two years of implementation and evaluation. The field activity will be open to both ACC science and non-science majors in their first or second year of higher education. Through a partnership with Texas A&M University, students enrolled in introductory geoscience courses will take a field trip to the Gulf Coast Repository, where over 100 kilometers of core from the Pacific Ocean, the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, and the Southern Ocean are located. Prior to the activity, students will complete pre-field activities including reading articles from scientific journals and exercises that related to the repository. After the visit, students will integrate findings to produce a term paper. The field activity will include four months for development of exercises and evaluation material, followed by two years of implementation and evaluation. By the end of the project, at least 24 second year students will have participated in the SUREC program and 150 first/second year non-science and science majors will have participated in the field activity.