GP-IN: Empowering Appalachian Students through the Exploring Geosciences Solutions (EGeoS) Curriculum and the Appalachian Geoscience Learning Ecosystem (AGLE)

Emerging “green” economic sectors that address climate change impacts and the energy transition require a workforce with environmental and geoscience post-secondary training; however, systemic barriers exist that prevent equitable access to this training. In particular, these barriers tend to exclude first-generation college students from historically underrepresented identities. As a means to facilitate equitable access to green geoscience career fields, this project aims to establish an Appalachian Geoscience Learning Ecosystem (AGLE) that will support Appalachian high school science students of all identities and backgrounds in their path to acquiring necessary post-secondary environmental and geoscience training. Central to attracting high school students to the AGLE is the Exploring Geosciences Solutions (EGeoS) Curriculum that will be aligned to a variety of West Virginia Next Generation Science high school science standards including Earth and Space Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Physical Science. Environmental and geoscience careers are high-paying occupations that require a postsecondary STEM degree, and achieving social justice requires deliberate interventions to orient and support students in the training these occupations will require. The goals of this project are to: 1) provide experiences that help pre-college students transition more successfully into undergraduate geoscience programs; 2) create mechanisms to engage upper-level high school students in experiences that demonstrate the geosciences as a viable career path; and 3) provide experiences for teachers to gain geoscience content for use in the classroom. The team plans to implement the project in several ways, including analyzing knowledge gains by participants and providing climate related research opportunities and measuring impacts of those experiences on career choice. 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.