Preparing Students in Two-year Colleges for Geoscience Degrees and Careers
University of Washington Tacoma, WA
July 18-21, 2012
This workshop has already taken place. For more information about what happened at the workshop, see the presentations and other materials linked from the Workshop Program.
Building a strong and diverse geoscience workforce is a critical national challenge. Two-year colleges (2YCs) play an important role in increasing both the number and diversity of geoscience graduates. This workshop will develop resources, strategies, and recommendations for preparing students in two-year colleges for geoscience careers, either as geotechnical graduates or as geoscience majors at four-year colleges and universities. These outcomes are especially important because many 2YC faculty and programs are neither tasked nor credited with the preparation of geoscience majors. In addition, the workshop will explore the scope and potential for geoscience technical training (e.g., earth resources, environmental management, marine technology), a topic not widely known or understood by the wider geoscience community.
This workshop brought together faculty, administrators, and representatives of professional societies to address the challenges and share successful programs and activities for bringing students from two-year colleges into geoscience careers. We worked together to develop new strategies and recommendations from the classroom to the national level. Participants became part of a network of colleagues who share similar challenges and concerns for the preparation of 2YC geoscience students.
Read the workshop overview for information about the workshop goals, schedule, expectations for participants, and the application process. Participants will be expected to contribute materials to a web-based collection of resources and to participate in a post-workshop activity.
There was no charge for faculty to attend the workshop and our grants will support participant travel expenses.COSEE Pacific Partnerships was a co-sponsor of this workshop.
Workshop conveners
Heather Macdonald, College of William and Mary
Eric Baer, Highline Community College
Robert Blodgett, Austin Community College
Jan Hodder, University of Oregon
This work is supported by the National Science Foundation Division of Undergraduate Education through grants DUE 1122592, 1122640, 1122660,1122737 and Division of Ocean Sciences OCE-0731338.
Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this website are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.