On Thursday we will be engaging you in some group discussions about the geosciences, about your identity and the communities with which you identify. In order to prepare for these discussion, we ask you to reflect upon several guiding questions and make some notes. Please keep these notes private for your own reflection and use. We will only ask you to share what you are comfortable sharing with others during the workshop.

Please bring your notes on the following to the workshop:

1. Reflect on the geosciences: (1) What do geoscientists do? (2) Who gets to be a geoscientist (3) How do they become geoscientists? (4) How does this compare to your own pathway? (5) In what ways do you think we need to change the community of geoscientists?
2. Reflect upon the communities with which you identify. They could be home town geographies, socioeconomic categories, racial/ ethnic identities, or current gender identities, for example. How are the geosciences are perceived, valued and misunderstood in these communities? How are members of these communities represented in the geosciences?
3. Have you ever told your personal story about who you are, how you became a geoscientist, or why you became a geoscientist? To whom? Why? Did it have the effect you intended?

1. Create a map of your personal pathway or journey into the geosciences (PathwayMappingExamples_Students.pdf (Acrobat (PDF) 8.9MB Jul14 21)). We will ask you to share this map with other workshop participants. We encourage you to be creative draw, sketch, scheme and scribble in whatever way helps you think about and represent your own personal journey. Here are some pathway elements PathwayPlanning_EER.pptx (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 57kB Apr22 21) that may help you think about things that you may wish to include in your map. Here are some examples.
2. Upload a digitized copy (e.g. photo) of your pathway map to the workshop work page to share.

Note: Your map does not need to be perfect, complete, comprehensive, tidy or beautiful! In fact, some mess and confusion is inevitable, as life journeys tend to be messy and confusing! The purpose of this exercise is just to give you an initial opportunity to think about and share a version of your personal journey.

Example pathway maps, ITT Article on Geoscience Ambassadors, Geoscience Ambassadors Website, Storytelling for Change Kit, AGI Career Compasses, AGI Currents, Re-envisioning Geoscience Undergraduates

Other resources that may be of interest

Ellins, Kathy, Stephen Boss, Tahlia Bear, Adam Papendieck (2019), Creating a personal pathway map toward a geoscience career, presented at the Earth Educators' Rendezvous, July 15 – 19, 2019, Nashville, TN.

Batchelor, R. L., H. Ali, K. G. Gardner-Vandy, A. U. Gold, J. A. MacKinnon, and P. M. Asher (2021), Reimagining STEM workforce development as a braided river, Eos, 102, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EO157277. Published on 19 April 2021.

Assignment 1: Craft a counternarrative

You have many different stories that you can tell. Use your personal pathway map as the framework or inspiration for choosing ONE short personal counternarrative that you'd like to tell. Write it down.  Be ready to tell it to your small group.  Be ready to say who could benefit from hearing your counternarrative, and why.

Assignment 2: Thinking ahead about design 

In preparation for tomorrow, write down some thoughts on what your version of a storytelling for change activity or program look like?  Could you see an Ambassadors program at your department or institution?

Remember, the goal is not to turn the science that you do into a story but to tell a story that shows you as a person who is a scientist.

Theories of Change and Logic Models, Ellen Iverson