Student Recruitment, Curriculum Design, and More:

Strategies and Resources for Building Strong Geoscience Departments

Carol Ormand, Randall Richardson, and Heather Macdonald convened a session at the fall 2009 meeting of the American Geophysical Union . Several of the presenters at this session agreed to share their presentations or posters here.

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Some geoscience departments are thriving while others struggle for survival. Those that thrive are successful at recruiting students and preparing them for future careers via their curricula and other aspects of their programs. They are also successful at articulating their successes to prospective students, current students, faculty advisors, alumni, employers, and institutional administrators. Successful curricula are designed to produce alumni with the knowledge and skills they will need for the next stage. In this session we seek contributions from departments of successful strategies, assessments for determining success, and supporting resources related to recruitment of undergraduate and/or graduate students, curriculum design, developing students for the professional geoscience workforce, program and student learning assessment, and program development beyond the curriculum.

Posters

Workforce Preparation – A Breakout Session for the Building Strong Geoscience Departments Visiting Workshop Program (Acrobat (PDF) 2.4MB Dec16 09)

D. I. Doser, University of Texas - El Paso

Lessons Learned from Curriculum Changes and Setting Curriculum Objectives at the University of Pennsylvania's Earth and Environmental Science Department (PowerPoint 248kB Dec17 09)

J. E. Dmochowski, University of Pennsylvania

Creating a Departmental Ecosystem by Going "Beyond the Curriculum" (Acrobat (PDF) 1.2MB Dec17 09)

D. D. Rhodes, Georgia Southern University

New Resources on the Building Strong Geoscience Departments Website (Acrobat (PDF) 8MB Dec15 09)

C. J. Ormand and C. A. Manduca, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College; H. Macdonald, College of William and Mary

Chair Talk: Resources to Maximize Administrative Efforts

H. Macdonald, College of William and Mary; M. A. Chan, University of Utah; E. W. Bierly, American Geophysical Union; C. A. Manduca and C. J. Ormand, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

Building a Geoscience Culture for Student Recruitment and Retention - The Geoscience Society and Department Nexus

C. M. Keane and C. M. Martinez, American Geosciences Institute

Assessment of Factors that Influence the Recruitment of Majors from Introductory Geology Classes

T. D. Hoisch and J. I. Bowie, Northern Arizona University

Recruitment Strategies for Geoscience Majors: Conceptual Framework and Practical Suggestions (Acrobat (PDF) 25.7MB Dec10 09)

R. M. Richardson, University of Arizona; C. Eyles, McMaster University; and C. J. Ormand, Science Education Resource Center, Carleton College

Oral Presentations

Building a Meteorology/Atmospheric Science Program for the Future – the Penn State approach

W. H. Brune, H. N. Shirer, G. S. Young, and J. Verlinde, Pennsylvania State University

Creative Building Design for Innovative Earth Science Teaching and Outreach

M. A. Chan, University of Utah

Reinvesting in Geosciences at Texas A&M University in the 21st Century (Acrobat (PDF) 4.6MB Jan8 10)

L. A. Cifuentes, S. W. Bednarz, K. C. Miller, Texas A&M University

The Role of Curricular Evolution and the Future of Collegiate Geoscience Education

K. Hodges, Arizona State University