Surveys are widely used to gain insight into the education system, as they can provide data from a large number of participants in order to investigate system-wide or discipline-wide practices and trends. Survey results can be analyzed to inform professional development, resource allocation, and further research.We sought to align a survey of geoscience teaching with new research in (1) the skills and dispositions that geoscience employers seek in bachelors-level employees (Shafer et al., 2023; Viskupic et al., 2026), and (2) the efficacy of specific inclusive teaching strategies (National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine, 2025). We modified and expanded questions from the National Geoscience Faculty Survey to ask instructors if students in their courses do specific activities to develop skills most frequently mentioned in advertisements for entry-level geoscience jobs. In addition, we developed new questions about dispositions and career preparation. Content validity was obtained through expert review and grounding new questions in well-established research. We tested questions with instructors from two institutions and conducted follow-up interviews to establish construct validity for new questions.The revised, validated survey was widely disseminated during the 2025-26 academic year to reach faculty who teach a range of courses for undergraduate geoscience majors. Results indicate that a large proportion of respondents incorporate skills that are important in the workforce in their courses, including working as part of a team, using spreadsheets, and documenting field conditions. Most respondents indicate that students are likely to develop dispositions such as attention to detail in their course, and some report making use of evidence-based strategies to support disposition development. Fewer report incorporation of activities that build students' awareness of and preparation for entering the workforce. These results highlight areas where instructors would benefit from professional learning and resources to inform teaching approaches that support today's students.

We just revised the geological sciences bachelor's of science degree plan at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to better recruit, retain and prepare our students for Geoscience careers. We utilized best practices in Earth science education in this new curriculum reform, supported partially by NSF's Geoscience Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD-EN) program. Specifically, stratified mentoring, community service and experiential learning approaches are implemented through two new upper-level classes, "Professional Development" and "Community Engagement", and a summer internship program. The "Community Engagement" course (offered in Fall 2024 and 2025) was team-taught by two faculty in collaboration with Frontera Land Alliance and Celebration of Our Mountains, two local non-profit organizations. The project topics were selected based on community partners' needs and student interests. Knowledge was introduced using a variety of constructivist methods beyond the traditional lecture format, including inquiry-based learning, interactive and student-centered activities, and case study approaches. These methods, along with field trips and discussion with stakeholders, provide our students opportunities to think critically and integrate knowledge they already possess, make connections with real-world topics, work through problems, and explore various aspects of local geology, water resources, and human settlement. We incorporated synergistic "Professional Development" activities in our "Community Engagement" course in Fall 2025, to equip students with skills and knowledge needed for professional success in their chosen workplace. We targeted three specific aspects: possible careers, strong applications, and communication skills. Internship experience was implemented in summer 2025, where 7 students were supported for two months and worked with professionals as mentors in academy, industry, state agencies or local organizations. Pre- and post-surveys results showed great gains in students' knowledges in logical geology, specific technical skills, professional and soft skills, and students' confidence and interest in serving community stakeholders, and students' readiness for careers.

For the past five years, the GeoSPACE field course has developed a unique program that highlights what accessible field programs can look like, and the positive impact that inclusive experiential programs have on students. In an effort to expand the options for accessible field work beyond our own program, a new phase of the project aims to utilize the field course as an annual training opportunity for faculty that would like to create or modify their own field programs to be more accessible and inclusive. This year, we ran a developmental version of this training with our first trainee. The workshop was embedded within the field course and the trainee shadowed different members of the leadership team on different days to learn about the various aspect of a hybrid field course, including logistical considerations (food, lodging, transportation, scheduling), access-centered teaching strategies, how and when to utilize different communication tools and techniques in hybrid field settings, implementing technology as means of improving access, how to build a sense of community and more. These topics were tied to specific course activities each day, with time to discuss and reflect at the end of each day and at the end of the field course. Co-developing this workshop with a trainee reflects the collaborative, reciprocal-learning approach of the field course itself. Here we present an overview of the resulting workshop program, reflections on the development process and potential next steps in offering this program (or one like it) to a broader audience.

This presentation will discuss the creation, implementation, and research results from a collaborative music concert designed to foster a greater connection to the natural world. In fall 2025, the Elon concert band partnered with the Outdoor Education program to design an immersive concert with music written explicitly in response to climate change. Before the concert, Outdoor Education students visited with the band students to help them develop a stronger emotional connection to the natural world and band students visited Outdoor Education students to break down the pieces musically and explain how composers represented the natural world through music. This project was a multi-fold approach, involving students in both programs and attendees of the concert itself. At the concert, attendees were engaged in a series of data collection methods to explore their connection to the natural world, their feelings on climate change, and their thoughts on an arts-based approach to these topics. After the concert, attendees descriptions of the natural world shifted from less possessive to more collective terminology (echoing Kimmerer's call to change how we talk about the natural world) and utilized more emotive language to describe the impact of place loss and climate change. Attendees recognized the value of an arts-based approach as a way to engage different audiences in conversation about the environment and climate change. This session will discuss the genesis of this innovative environmental education program and will share results from the concert attendees. The session will explore strategies for innovative cross-departmental collaborations and nontraditional approaches to education about the environment.

This ethnographic study examines the research experiences of international graduate students (IGS) from the Global South who enroll in an Earth Science Department at a Southwest university. I draw on Fricker's (2007) epistemic injustice, which centers on power and the ethics of knowing, to provide a framework for identifying how systemic prejudice from a hearer or a collective unduly dismisses knowers and knowledge. As a Mexican IGS, I recruited IGS from the Global South using snowball sampling. Four Global South IGS participated while enrolled in Earth Science programs at a Southwest university. I collected data through semi-structured interviews, lasting 45-60 minutes, and conducted via Zoom. I manually transcribed these interviews verbatim and analyzed them using open and focused coding (Saldaña, 2016) in MAXQDA.Findings link IGS's lived experiences to their research engagement in the host country. Epistemic injustice (Fricker, 2007) shows how students' knowledge is threatened, while coloniality (Maldonado-Torres, 2007) highlights how students devalue experiences from their home country. This study thus recommends recognizing students' experiences to foster epistemically diverse environments.IGS research experiences in the US are marked by prior experiences that taught resourcefulness, problem-solving, and resilience. However, their previous context was rooted in colonial perspectives that undermined their knowledge. US universities and laboratories should support and foster these researchers' epistemic resources. This study offers three key recommendations for geoscience education, based on the experiences of Global South international students: (1) implement mentor and instructor routines that elicit and name students' epistemic resources; (2) use identity-affirming feedback and ensure inclusive participation structures in labs; and (3) adopt strategies that value multiple solution pathways.

Bilingual elementary pre-service teachers (BEPTs) must simultaneously develop science content knowledge and learn to teach across languages. Many are heritage Spanish speakers who are conversationally fluent but have limited experience using other linguistic resources for science instruction. Traditional science methods courses rarely address these linguistic demands, leaving BEPTs underprepared for multilingual science classrooms. In Fall 2025, this project engaged n = 26 undergraduate BEPTs in three bilingual science modules designed to strengthen their pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and cross-linguistic awareness (CLA). The modules focused on Hydrologic, Climate, and Earth systems, and were grounded in the 5E model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate). Translanguaging pedagogy was embedded throughout to support bilingual science instruction. Within each lesson, a 5E-aligned activity was paired with opportunities for BEPTs to practice translanguaging strategies. Each lesson, culminated in an application task in which BEPTs described how they would teach a science concept using a translanguaging approach. The modules were implemented in a redesigned junior-year science teaching methods course, "BEEP 4312: Science and Health Education in Dual Language Settings", where students also developed a bilingual lesson plan. We ask, how did engagement with the learning activities support BEPTs' PCK-CLA development? We developed a rubric integrating PCK and CLA across four constructs: knowledge of curriculum, learners, strategies, and assessment. Data sources included 96 lessons' activities' responses across the three modules, and lesson plans. Preliminary analysis of lesson plans from n = 15 students shows consistent curriculum alignment and coherent instructional design, particularly in the use of topic-specific activities and representations. Students also showed emerging attention to varied linguistic resources and student thinking, reflecting a growing awareness of how to leverage students' full linguistic repertoire, verbal and non-verbal, across both languages, throughout their learning activities and lesson planning. Further analyses will continue to inform patterns in PCK-CLA development.

We present two successful models for discipline-based cultural change aimed at increasing the diversity and number of students retained in undergraduate physical science programs. Coupling place- and project-based learning with an environmental justice curriculum was used to spark student interest in societally-beneficial careers. We focus on cultural change benefiting lower division geoscience students in two separate programs, at Clovis Community College (CCC) in Fresno, CA, and Cal Poly Humboldt. Geology and Environmental Science faculty at CCC and partner institution Fresno State provided leadership for the four-year Building Opportunities through Networks of Discovery in the Geosciences (GEOBOND) project. We analyze the effectiveness of cultural change using a discipline-based education research (DBER) framework with four components: structures and formal roles, language and symbols, people, and power and decision-making. We focus on differences in the power and decision-making experience of faculty at CCC and Fresno State. In particular, structural barriers at CCC, e.g., faculty not having access to the list of Geology majors, and being unable to hire students as research assistants or embedded tutors, were not encountered at Fresno State. Having GEOBOND faculty at a four-year institution validate potential solutions helped to justify the changes made in the community college setting.We use the same DBER framework to explain the effectiveness of a multi-disciplinary approach to cultural change in Cal Poly Humboldt's Place Based Learning Community (PBLC) Stars to Rocks (for first year geology, chemistry, and physics majors). Grouping different physical sciences together allows for shared language while giving students opportunities for belonging within a larger group of peers and faculty. Faculty from the three departments have agency over discipline-specific changes, and are embedded within a group of lead faculty across all STEM disciplines who oversee the structural aspects of PBLC implementation.