Initial Publication Date: May 15, 2015

Focus Group 2: Instructors: Course and Curriculum Development for a Diverse Geoscience Workforce

August 5-7, 2015

This meeting focuses on how instructors at 2YCs and MSIs and how they utilize responsive instructional resources, materials, and tools. We will invite instructors from multiple types of universities to help identify the current and desired state of geoscience education. We will explore the desired state of instruction, ways to improve the preparedness and diversity of geoscience graduates, and increase the interaction between universities and the workforce. The final product of this focus group will be a systems model showing how academia, employers, and other stakeholder groups (namely, researchers and resource providers) can best collaborate to support geoscience instruction at 2YCs and MSIs.

Topics to be Addressed

1. Current state

  • What instructional resources do instructors utilize?
  • How do instructors identify/find resources?
  • What are the challenges associated with the resources that instructors are utilizing?
  • What resources have instructors found that work for particular underrepresented groups?

2. Desired state

  • What resources do instructors need?
  • What are barriers to utilizing innovative resources for instructors at 2YCs/MSIs?
  • What are ways these resources could best reach instructors at 2YCs/MSIs?
  • What professional development would be necessary to utilize new resources? What delivery mechanism for this PD would best fit your needs?
  • What administrator "buy-in" would be needed to utilize innovative resources?
  • What would be needed to sustain new programs, curricula, and resources once developed?

3. Closing the Gap - Models of Effective Geoscience Instruction at 2YCs/MSIs

  • What institutional partnerships or collaborations would you or your students find beneficial?
  • What, if any, are the challenges associated with these partnerships/collaborations?
  • What incentives exist (or could exist) to foster collaborations between employers and 2YCs/MSIs? Between 2YCs, MSIs, and other types of institutions?

4. Pulling it Together: A Model for Sustainable Geoscience Instruction at 2YCs/MSIs

  • What types of opportunities are most feasible for broadening geoscience instruction at 2YCs/MSIs?
  • What next steps are needed to implement these models?