EAGER: An exploratory investigation of the impact of the Center for Diverse Leadership in Science logic model on faculty and student development

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this EAGER project is to examine the impacts of the UCLA Center for Diverse Leadership in Science (CDLS) faculty and trainee development models on ocean science education. The CDLS faculty development model aims to grow faculty skills in inclusive mentoring, inclusive teaching, and cultural awareness, and put these skills into practice. The trainee development model includes constructing learning environments to promote experiential learning, science identity, and social belonging, through team-based research, team-based outreach, and technical and higher skills development, with vertical and peer mentorship. For both faculty and trainees, CDLS builds communities of learning and practice. This project would do exploratory work to adapt and assess a new set of logic models for broadening participation in ocean sciences. It would create new curricular materials and implement them to transition a traditional theoretical undergraduate curriculum in a non-diverse department (Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences) into one that includes extracurricular field opportunities, problems-based activities, community outreach, and service learning. It will also impact teaching in two additional departments (Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, Environmental Science) where participants and collaborators teach. A broader aim will be to reach 200+ students/year once created, of which 25% will be from underrepresented groups. The project would support multiple trainees including undergraduates and graduate students from underrepresented groups, and an early career project scientist, as well as support partnerships with multiple high schools and youth centers in low-income minority neighborhoods, and a non-profit. Through assessment, conference presentations, and an initial manuscript on the results, the PIs will document learning gains, engagement, higher skills, persistence, and broadening participation. This project will test the impact of the CDLS logic models in ocean science education, and specifically will assess the impacts of the team's approaches on growth of 1) inclusive mentoring and teaching practices, and actions that relate to enhanced cultural awareness in faculty, and 2) engagement, grades, retention, science identity, and social belonging in trainees through stated activities. This approach should increase opportunities for undergraduate students to have hands-on and meaningful learning experiences in oceanography, that also promotes inclusion and the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented groups in the field, while at the same time supporting the persistence of graduate students and early career scientists from underrepresented groups in the field. To achieve project goals, PIs will 1) grow cultural awareness skills and practices in current and future ocean science educators, through completion of mentoring curriculum by project participants, 2) undergraduate students working in teams with project participants from underrepresented groups by 3) curriculum modification, 4) field-based experiences, 5) service-learning projects with a local non-profit, and 6) student-created public ocean science engagement projects. PIs predict the focus on using oceanographic knowledge in service to address current problems, community outreach, and experiential learning, along with the provision of team-based work and concordant role models, will support high levels of recruitment, persistence, and engagement. 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.