| 英文摘要: | This project addresses the need to expand and diversify the geoscience workforce in the United States by developing a model partnership between the University of Tennessee (UT) and three community colleges to improve recruiting and success of students transferring from 2-year community colleges to 4-year geoscience programs and geoscience careers. UT geoscience faculty are partnering with geoscience faculty at Pellissippi State, Roane State, and Volunteer State Community Colleges in east and middle Tennessee to offer enrichment activities, including outdoor experiential learning and collaborative research that will boost interest in the geosciences as a major and a career. Enrichment activities include students and faculty from both types of institutions, along with recent geoscience graduates from UT. These activities are helping community college students develop support networks that can reduce the social barriers that are often encountered when transferring to a large state university. Faculty mentors at UT are advising community college students on transfer courses and connecting them with research and internship opportunities. This project is expected to lead to greater diversity in student populations in 4-year geoscience programs at UT because of the more diverse student body found at the partner community colleges. The colleges typically have higher percentages of first-generation college students, rural students, and African-American students than UT. The project may also lead to greater career success and economic benefits for transfer students, because of the strong demand for professional geoscientists and the relatively high salaries offered for these positions. The project is expected to serve as a model for other partnerships between major research universities and community colleges; lessons learned are being shared widely to encourage and strengthen similar partnerships at other institutions and in other science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines.
The goals of this model partnership are to: a) increase the number of community college students transferring to geoscience programs (Geology and Physical Geography) at UT; b) improve the rate of success of transfer students at UT, by getting them excited about geoscience education and careers, and providing a higher level of university mentoring prior to their transfer; and c) increase diversity in the 4-year geoscience programs at UT, through effective recruiting from the more diverse pools of students that attend area community colleges. UT faculty are working with their community college partners to recruit students from introductory geology courses during their freshman year. Approximately 15 community college students and 5 UT students are invited to participate with faculty from the partner institutions in a 5-day residential field geoscience workshop at the Great Smoky Mountains Institute at Tremont each summer. The workshop includes experiential learning activities on geoscience topics that are expected to resonate with freshman students, including water quality, fossils, landslides, meteorology, and climate change. Students who are engaged in the summer workshops are invited to participate in additional enrichment activities during their sophomore year. These include field trips to geologically significant sites in the region and visits to UT, where community college students have opportunities to meet peers, tour research labs, and be assigned a faculty mentor. Mentors provide information on course transfers, scholarships, and career prospects, as well as help arrange research or internship opportunities at UT, at the community colleges, or at other locations, such as Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Through this project, the community colleges are receiving enrichment funds and access to UT labs and equipment for collaborative student research. UT and community college faculty are also working with administrators to improve transfer procedures and methods of tracking success of community college transfer students. The project coincides with ongoing efforts at UT to improve institutional data on metrics of success for transfer students. Faculty participants are guiding this effort to ensure that aggregated institutional data are collected and presented in formats that can be used by departments in planning revisions of curricula and in developing more effective mentoring methods. The efforts to improve the procedures for transfer students, together with the personal and professional ties that are expected to develop between UT and community college faculty members, will ensure that the impact of the project extends beyond the duration of funding and leads to enduring institutional change. Evaluation activities will help build the evidence base regarding what practices are most effective for developing partnerships to improve community college student recruitment, transfer and success in 4-year geoscience programs. |