Workshop: 6th Biennial Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum; Brunswick, ME; June 2020

Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME

Investigators

Abstract

This award will support the sixth biannual Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum, which will be held June 15-19, 2020 at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. The forum will bring together specialists in structural geology and tectonics for oral and poster presentations, field trips, and short courses. The Structural Geology and Tectonics Program provides the framework for the structural geology and tectonics community to communicate, develop, and advance teaching and research among educators and investigators. These forums play a key role in identifying key pedagogical advances and methods applied to structural geology and tectonics, important science questions in structural geology and tectonics, while initiating collaborative relationships to address these questions. The meeting will include three days of presentations that will include technical sessions that involve themes that have been identified by a recently published community vision document that highlighted important research areas in tectonics. The workshop will also identify and discuss pedagogical advances and advances and methods, specifically as they apply to some of the discipline specific challenges of teaching structural geology and tectonics and discuss future directions in tectonics research. It will create opportunities to foster new collaborations through the cross-pollination of ideas and techniques, and it will provide a platform for early career professionals and students that supports and promotes their careers at a critical stage in their professional development. Following the format of previous meetings, each session will highlight an important area of current research and/or education that will be anchored by a distinguished keynote speaker and will showcase relevance of work on the topic. Poster sessions with abundant time for full participant interaction will accompany each session. The forum will be organized to maximize the exchange of ideas between participants in open discussions. Sessions will provide ample opportunity to ask questions of individual presenters, assess the current state of our knowledge, and consider productive areas for future research. In addition to the formal meeting, there will be field trips to examine the geology of selected areas of adjacent areas that will focus on best practices for teaching in the field and leading more accessible field trips. The Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum is designed to facilitate community building and personal interaction within different segments of the structural geology community. It will bring together faculty from research universities, liberal arts colleges, community and two-year colleges, and minority-serving institutions. Speakers who identify as members of traditionally underrepresented groups as well as professionals from two- and four- year colleges will provide diverse representation across all of the organizing committees for the 2020 forum. Importantly, there will be group discussions on critical developments in structural geology and tectonics, and what future research priorities should be. This community building effort will help create a stronger, more vibrant group of scientists and help introduce graduate students and advanced undergraduates to the structural geology and tectonics disciplines. The setting will be particularly useful for graduate students, who will be able to use the venue and informal nature of the forum to find out what research is taking place at other institutions, meet a wide range of faculty, and develop useful contacts which will be of great value to their future careers. Informal mentoring sessions will facilitate opportunities for early career professionals and students in navigating careers in structural geology and tectonics. Students will present their own work in a friendly environment where they can obtain thoughtful and useful feedback, as well as providing opportunity to build new scientific collaborations. An important contribution of this forum will include a session aimed identifying one session will be aimed at best practices to promote equity, diversity and inclusion in the classroom. By focusing on classroom activities and approaches, successful strategies can be identified that can be adopted by other institutions to minimize the “leaky pipeline” that is known to be part of the problem with retention of underrepresented groups in the geosciences. Abstracts, field guides, and short course notes will be disseminated through a dedicated website that will be publicly accessible. Continued support for the Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum contributes to the long-term health, vitality, and infrastructure of the Earth Science community. The Structural Geology and Tectonics Forum benefits society and advances desired societal outcomes by its emphasis on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education and educator development at a variety of levels, by contributing to the training of the next generation of scientists, by contributing to the broadening of underrepresented groups in STEM, and by contributing to the advancement of scientific literacy of the public. These activities contribute to the increased economic and scientific competitiveness of the United States. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.