HR: 1330h
AN: ED13E-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Bringing the SF-ROCKS Model Beyond the San Francisco Bay Area: Building a Partnership Between the San Francisco State University and the University of New Orleans Geoscience Diversity Programs
AU: * White, L D
EM: lwhite@sfsu.edu
AF: San Francisco State University, Dept. of Geosciences 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 United States
AU: Snow, M K
EM: sfrocks@sfsu.edu
AF: San Francisco State University, Dept. of Geosciences 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 United States
AU: Davis, J
EM: jend@moorekb.com
AF: San Francisco State University, Dept. of Geosciences 1600 Holloway Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94132 United States
AU: Serpa, L F
EM: lserpa@uno.edu
AF: University of New Orleans, Dept. of Geology and Geophysics 2000 Lakeshore Drive, New Orleans, LA 70148 United States
AB: Since 2001, faculty and graduate students in the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University (SFSU) have coordinated a program to encourage high school students from traditionally underrepresented groups to pursue the geosciences. The SF-ROCKS (Reaching Out to Communities and Kids with Science in San Francisco) program is a multifaceted NSF-funded program that includes curriculum enhancement, teacher in-service training, summer and academic year research experiences for high school students, and field excursions to national parks. Six faculty, five graduate students, and several undergraduate students work together to develop program activities. Working with 9th grade integrated science courses, the students are introduced to SF-ROCKS through lesson plans and activities that focus on the unique geologic environments that surround the schools. Each year a group of twelve to fifteen students is selected to participate in a summer and academic year research institute at the SFSU campus. In the four years of our program, twenty-seven ninth and tenth-grade students have participated in the summer and academic year research experiences. We have observed increased interest and skill development as the high school students work closely with university faculty and students. As SF-ROCKS continues to expand, we are exploring ways to partner with other diversity programs such as the long-standing University of New Orleans (UNO) Minority Geoscience summer field program. The UNO program is successful because it combines field exposure and mentoring with scholarship opportunities for students making it more likely they will study geosciences in college. SF-ROCKS is creating additional ways to further enhance the students' perspective of the geosciences through meaningful field and scientific research experiences by focusing on local and regional geologic environments and also on the geology of national parks.
UR: http://sf-rocks.sfsu.edu
DE: 0800 EDUCATION
DE: 0810 Post-secondary education
DE: 0830 Teacher training
SC: Education and Human Resources [ED]
MN: 2005 Joint Assembly