Whether one uses the language of the sub-fields or that of the overarching field, there has been a consistent theme over the past 40-plus years. The gross under-representation of African Americans in the Geosciences, despite years of recruitment efforts into these fields, clearly indicates a need to reassess the approach. Further, there needs to be an examination of the best practices, or at least reoccurring themes, for those institutions of higher learning that are producing the bulk of the African American Geoscientists: the HBCUs. Secondly, there needs to be an evaluation of the first on-ramp to the pathway for the Geosciences: middle-grades teacher preparation. The purpose of this 3-year, NSF-funded project was to deliver a strategic, multi-dimensional, scalable instrument to 1) positively impact middle school teacher preparation curricula and professional development activities and 2) improve minority access to the geosciences. In this presentation, we will describe the development and initial deployment of the instrument at 3 unique HBCUs and present major findings from the preliminary data as well as describe the planned next steps, which include meaningful collaborative research at the intersection of the Sciences with K12 educators and the broader community.