HR: 09:45h
AN: ED41B-04    [Abstracts]
TI: The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Geoscience Initiative
AU: * Velasco, A A
EM: velasco@geo.utep.edu
AF: University of Texas at El Paso, Geological Sciences, El Paso, TX 79968-0555 United States
AB: The declining number of geoscience students, especially US citizens, threatens the country's future preparedness in natural hazards mitigation, resource development, national security, and education. Furthermore, the geosciences suffer from poor representation among underrepresented groups, even by comparison to other sciences and engineering. Several organizations have been successful in mentoring and recruiting minorities into science. The Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) focuses on encouraging undergraduate and graduate Hispanic and American Indian students to pursue higher degrees. For over 30 years, SACNAS has provided strong national leadership in improving science and math education, as well as expanding opportunities for minorities in the scientific workforce and academia. SACNAS has added a geological science emphasis to its existing programs to address the need to diversify the field, with funding from the National Science Foundation Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) program. The goals of this initiative are to: (1) recruit 50 Native American and Chicano/Latino undergraduate and graduate students that are performing research in geoscience disciplines each year for the next five years to attend the annual SACNAS Conference; (2) provide students with early mentoring opportunities designed to assist them with their plans for higher education and employment as researchers and educators in the geosciences; (3) sponsor scientific symposia sessions focusing on advances in the geosciences and opportunities available in related fields; (4) Serve as an information resource through the SACNAS web site and monthly e-nouncements for geoscience research opportunities, and disseminate results of initiative; (5) Offer a workshop for K-12 teachers focusing on geosciences and provide mentoring support throughout the year. We are evaluating the effectiveness of the mentoring initiative by tracking educational progress of Conference geoscience participants over time, and will determine the effectiveness of the workshop on K-12 teaching.
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
DE: 0855 Diversity
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005