Site Guide: Departments

Project Pages

Building Strong Geoscience Departments - Building Strong Geoscience Departments is a project focused on helping geoscience departments adapt and prosper in a changing and challenging environment. Through workshops, the website, professional society meeting sessions, and publications, this project aims to stimulate discussions and disseminate community expertise on topics such as approaches to core content and curriculum, recruiting and retaining top faculty and students, program assessment, and maintaining the department as a valued institutional partner. This program is sponsored by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, the American Geological Institute, the Geological Society of America, and the American Geophysical Union.

Preparing Teachers to Teach Earth Science - This site examines the role of geoscience departments and faculty in preparing preservice teachers and supporting practicing teachers who teach Earth science at all pre-college levels. Information is drawn from the participants and outcomes of the 2003 On the Cutting Edge workshop, Developing the Earth Science Teacher Workforce: The Role of Geoscience Departments and Introductory Courses.

Workshop pages from Building Strong Geoscience Departments

Strengthening Your Geoscience Department: A Practical Workshop with Ideas and Examples - This workshop focused on areas of high interest to participants, such as student recruitment, curriculum, co-curricular programs, assessment, and leading/managing change. Participants drew on strategies and examples from past workshops to develop practical solutions to the challenges facing participants' departments. Teams of participants were encouraged, particularly from departments in the mid-Atlantic states.

Assessing Geoscience Programs: Theory and Practice - Departments are increasingly called upon to assess the impact of their programs on students and to measure the degree to which they meet stated goals. This workshop showcased the methods and instruments that geoscience departments are using for program assessment, as well as provided opportunities to learn more about evaluation theory and practice from experts in the field. It focused on using assessment to meet your own goals, as well as your institution's, and on increasing the quality and efficiency of assessment.

Strategies for Successful Recruitment of Geoscience Majors - This workshop explored the issues that affect student recruitment in geoscience departments/programs and identified strategies that can enhance recruitment initiatives in a range of contexts. Participants also considered the question of how to measure the success of recruitment efforts.

Connecting Geoscience Departments to the Future of Science: New Structures for Research and Curriculum - This workshop considered how geoscience departments and programs will evolve as geoscience becomes more interdisciplinary, embraces new computational and analytic capacities, and participates in an increasingly global community. Bringing together participants from major research universities, regional comprehensive universities, and liberal arts colleges we considered the implications of these ongoing changes on the design of our curriculum, the ways we support students and faculty in research, and the nature of our departments themselves.

The Role of Departments in Preparing Future Geoscience Professionals - The goal of this workshop was to improve the ability of departments to prepare geoscience students for professional careers including traditional roles in academia, government research, industry, and teaching, as well as opportunities in business, law, public service, and elsewhere. The workshop brought together faculty leaders, chairs, and other campus administrators to discuss strategies that have been effective on their own campuses, to develop new ideas to strengthen their programs, and to develop recommendations regarding the critical elements in preparing future geoscience professionals.