Mapping Geoscience Related Programs and Teacher Education at HBCUs to Integrate and Expand Geoscience Pathways

Keywords: STEM, Geoscience, HBCU, GIS, Education
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 4/10/2021 04:40 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/10/2021 05:55 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 20

Abstract

While less than 1% of undergraduate geoscience degrees are conferred nationally to African Americans, HBCUs are uniquely positioned to introduce Geosciences to students from underrepresented and underserved communities by putting science in the hands of K-12 teachers. The goals of this project are to map Geoscience offerings, and teacher education offerings, at HBCUs. This project set out to identify the gaps and opportunities related to HBCUs with Education and HBCUs with Geoscience-related areas of study and develop layers of data depicting the intersections between pre-service teachers and earth sciences, indicating the offerings at each institution. A deep dive is currently underway to designate, where appropriate, resources for enhancement, and to aid in supporting more Geoscience expertise and knowledge transfer, available to students, through culturally relevant content and robust pedagogy. The pairing of education and geoscience programs will also enhance experiential, place-based opportunities (hands-on learning) through, pedagogy, geography, weather, climate, food science, marine science, Earth and space science and other emerging technologies. The data comes from a search for specific courses, programs, majors, minors and other offerings that are publicly listed on HBCU websites and may not be representative of the true count of either geosciences or education. However, the data may present a roadmap to those schools that don't currently have geoscience programs and provide insight for potential hiring decisions and/or expanded course offerings.