HR: 08:15h
AN: ED21D-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Developing Short-Term Indicators of Recruitment and Retention in the Geosciences
AU: * Fuhrman, M
EM: mfuhrman@air.org
AF: American Institutes for Research, 1791 Arastradero Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AU: Gonzalez, R
EM: raqgonzalez@air.org
AF: American Institutes for Research, 1791 Arastradero Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AU: Levine, R
EM: rlevine@air.org
AF: American Institutes for Research, 1791 Arastradero Rd., Palo Alto, CA 94304 United States
AB: The NSF Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) program awards grants to projects that are intended to increase participation in geoscience careers by members of groups that have been traditionally underrepresented in the geosciences. OEDG grantee projects use a variety of strategies intended to influence the attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of underrepresented students at levels from K-12 to graduate school. The ultimate criterion for assessing the success of a project is the number of underrepresented minority students who become geoscientists (and who would not have otherwise become geoscientists). For most projects this criterion can only be observed in the distant future. In order to develop shorter-term indicators of program success, researchers at AIR developed a conceptual framework based on a review of the literature and discussion with geoscientists. This model allowed us to identify an extensive, but not fully comprehensive, set of indicators. There are undoubtedly other potential indicators of recruitment and retention in the geosciences. The research literature reviewed was a general literature, dealing with science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) college major or career choice by individuals who are underrepresented group members, so the model is based on indicators of retention in a general STEM career path rather than a specific geoscience path. Nonetheless, it is our belief that retention in STEM is critical for retention in geoscience. In the past year, AIR staff have conducted a critical incident study to further refine this model. This study focused on factors unique to the geosciences. The goal was to learn about behaviors that encouraged or discouraged someone from becoming a geoscientist, where individual behaviors are termed as "incidents." The preliminary data, the impact of this pilot study on the model, and the revised model will be presented. Some examples of behaviors our study found that seem to affect an individual's decision on becoming a geoscientist include: parental support, exposure to geoscience classes, experience in the outdoors, experiencing extraordinary geosciences events, taking introductory geosciences course, accessibility of geoscience faculty, and participation in informal interactions and social activities in a geoscience department.
DE: 0805 Elementary and secondary education
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0815 Informal education
DE: 0840 Evaluation and assessment
DE: 0850 Geoscience education research
SC: Education and Human Resourcese [ED]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting