| 英文摘要: | Despite regional and national demand for geoscience graduates at all workforce entry points, educational institutions have struggled to increase enrollment, leading to only 240 individuals earning an associate's and only 3,800 earning a bachelor's degree out of roughly 28,000 enrolled undergraduates nationwide (American Geoscience Institute, Status of Recent Geoscience Graduates 2013). Currently accounting for over 50% of the nation's undergraduate population, community colleges are a crucial pipeline to the geosciences workforce. However, several barriers impact the recruitment, retention, and graduation of community college geosciences majors, including the diverse nature of students with respect to academic preparedness, economic standing, sense of support and awareness of career opportunities - making recruitment and persistence challenging for two-year geoscience programs. To meet the employment demand, an increased number of students must enroll, persist and graduate from two-year geosciences programs. Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) proposes to address barriers to entry to geoscience careers through a new program, entitled GEO CORE (Geoscience Educational Opportunities & Career-Oriented Research Experiences), which will expand evidence-based pedagogical concepts to extracurricular activities in order to allow greater participation for majors and prospective majors of geology, marine, and atmospheric sciences. This project will build on ongoing collaborations by bringing the community college together with three regional high schools, Stony Brook University, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey and private industry partners. This project seeks to increase enrollment and student success in geosciences, particularly for students underrepresented in the discipline, by enhancing student learning experiences, and increasing transfer rates and job placements to support the regional workforce needs.
Suffolk County Community College (SCCC) is developing a new program entitled GEO CORE (Geoscience Educational Opportunities & Career-Oriented Research Experiences). This GEOPATH: EXTRA project will build on ongoing STEM collaborations established through SCCC's highly successful, state-funded Science & Technology Entry and Liberty Partnerships programs, and its NSF S-STEM Scholars Program, by bringing together three regional high schools, Stony Brook University's Department of Geosciences and its School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey - Water Resources Division and private industry partners to provide a pathways from high school to college and into the geoscience workforce. The goals of the GEO CORE project are to: 1) increase enrollment within the geosciences, particularly for students underrepresented in the disciplines; 2) enhance student learning experiences and outcomes; and 3) increase transfer rates and job placements to support regional workforce needs. Through the GEO CORE program, SCCC is instituting the following collaborative activities: 1) implementation of a summer institute for graduating high school and first-year community college students led by geoscience professionals and academics that incorporates research-oriented fieldwork experiences that highlight the interconnection between the geosciences and the regional environmental and economic concerns; 2) creating a GEO CORE Student Ambassador Program which prepares and supports second-year geoscience students who serve as peer mentors and academic tutors to foster success among first-year students; 3) establishing a career-based training program that includes hazardous materials training and certification to ensure that graduating geoscience students have the skills necessary for immediate employment and/or success upon transfer to four-year colleges and universities; 4) forming a community of practice for professional and peer networking opportunities among government agencies, industry, higher education institutions and high schools; and 5) encouraging the integration of GEO CORE activities into high school classrooms to serve as a bridge between secondary schools and the community college to help grow the geoscience education pipeline. Project success is being measured by comparing student outcomes to established baselines, and tracking the academic success, graduation, transfer, research experiences and career advancement of each annual cohort served by GEO CORE. |