Interested in learning more about how to increase diversity in the sciences?-- Join the Earth Educators' Rendezvous this summer!

Join us at the upcoming Earth Educators' Rendezvous this summer in Boulder, CO for important opportunities to learn about increasing diversity in the sciences including a workshop and plenary by Professor John Matsui, Director and Co-Founder of The Biology Scholars Program (BSP) at the University of California, Berkeley. The BSP program challenges the "by the numbers" popular view (e.g. SATs and high schools GPAs as good predictors of success) about who can and should do science. Over the past 20 years, of the 2080 BSP graduates, 60% have been underrepresented minorities (African American, Hispanic, and American Indian), 70% women, and 80% from low-income backgrounds and/or the first in their family to attend college.

As described further below, offerings also include:

• Workshop: Improving the Odds of Student Success: Academic Supports and More
  with Professor John Matsui
  Thursday and Friday, July 16-17 | 8:30am-11:30 am
  
  Beyond implementing 'the list' of components that make-up STEM diversity programs across the country, what must we do differently to diversify who succeeds in STEM majors and careers? Using the latest social science research and 22 years of student success data from UC Berkeley's Biology Scholars Program, the workshop will analyze and problem-solve how to go from theory to practice to help us implement these recommendations with our particular institutions and students.
  

• Plenary: Diversifying Science—Is it as simple as replicating 'programs that work'?
  with Professor John Matsui
  Wednesday, July 15 | 4:30pm-5:30pm |
  
  What's so hard about designing and running an effective STEM diversity program? Ask any director about his/her program or read any program proposal outlining what the PI plans to do, and you'll find their 'lists' to be remarkably similar. Comprehensive support, early exposure to research, selecting the best students, developing community, meeting financial need, faculty mentoring, and an emphasis on excellence make up the typical short list of requisites to build an effective program. However, in spite of this consensus about what to do and after 40 years of diversity programs supported by billions of public and private dollars, under-representation persists. How can we more effectively help our under-represented (and all) students succeed in STEM majors and related careers?
  
  
• Workshop:Developing your Cultural Competency: Individual Actions to Improve the Climate for All
  with Professors Gary Weissmann and Roberto Ibarra
  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, July 13-15 | 8:30am-11:30am
  
  The workshop is targeted for faculty and administrators who are interested in some potential reasons we have not attracted a diverse community in the geosciences, and explore things that can be done programmatically and in curricula to broaden the appeal of geosciences and help retain and support students once they choose the major.
  
  
• Workshop: Increasing the Diversity of your Graduates
  with Professor Ashanti Johnson
  Friday, July 17 | 1:30pm-4:15pm
  
  This interactive workshop draws on broadening participation research and literature to introduce the many positive factors that reduce barriers to participation and support success in STEM pathways, enabling diverse students and early career professionals to succeed and persist in STEM fields. The goal is to provide participants the information they need to begin formulating personal action plans for cultivating, implementing, and facilitating positive factors of change in their own graduate level programs.
  
  
• Poster Session: Teaching for Diversity
  Wednesday, July 15 | 11:30am-1:30pm
  
  
• Oral Session: Teaching for Diversity
  Thursday, July 16 | 1:30pm-4:15pm
  
  

The 2015 first annual Earth Educators' Rendezvous will bring together researchers and practitioners working in all aspects of undergraduate Earth education. We welcome faculty from all disciplines who are interested in improving their teaching about the Earth, administrators from geoscience departments and interdisciplinary programs that want to become stronger, and education researchers of all types. Join the Rendezvous for 2 or 3 days or stay the whole week. To learn more and to register, visit: http://serc.carleton.edu/earth_rendezvous/2015/overview.html

The Earth Educators' Rendezvous is supported by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT). Join today and receive a discount on your registration. Your membership will help ensure that this event can continue to serve geoscience educators.
The National Science Foundation is providing support through the InTeGrate STEP Center for the design and development of the Rendezvous.