About This Project
Strong undergraduate geoscience education is dependent on effective programs at two-year colleges (2YCs). These colleges play an increasingly important role in producing earth-science literate citizens, developing a competent and creative geoscience workforce, teaching science to pre-service K-12 teachers, and providing a foundation for broadening participation in the geosciences. Two-year college faculty face substantial challenges – limited resources for travel, isolation, and few opportunities for geoscience professional development specific for their setting. By engaging 2YC geoscience faculty in professional development, the SAGE2YC project will disseminate advances in STEM education to improve teaching, support students in geoscience technical training, and help prepare geoscience majors and pre-service teachers for college transfer. Online resources will enable dissemination beyond SAGE2YC workshop participants and will become an important resource for both 2YC faculty and the broader geoscience community. With the great diversity of the 2YC students, this project helps broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in the geosciences by increasing their involvement in 2YC programs and by preparing them for enrollment in four-year institutions or for the geotechnical workforce.
To help meet the needs described above, the SAGE-2YC project will engage 2YC geoscience faculty in a targeted professional development program. This program will share successful strategies for teaching students with a range of abilities, experiences, and goals, and for preparing 2YC students for the geoscience workforce. Included in this project will be:
- two topical workshops - one on effective strategies for teaching all students and the other on workforce development through geoscience education at 2YCs
- a website of 2YC geoscience resources
- four types of dissemination workshops - national, regional, local, and virtual
- a leadership development program for 2YC geoscience faculty
The SAGE2YC project seeks to develop effective models of professional development for full-time and adjunct 2YC geoscience faculty, establish networks of 2YC and 4YC faculty and administrators focused on 2YC education, and build leadership within the 2YC geoscience community. Furthermore, the project will synthesize resources to address challenges in 2YC geoscience education. The topical and dissemination workshops will enable 2YC faculty to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities, to share effective strategies and examples, to meet new colleagues, to prepare action plans to improve curriculum and instruction, and to develop sustainable professional communities.
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