NSF Awards: 1911512
Through this NSF-funded GEOPATHS program, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville undergraduate students of diverse backgrounds are learning about exciting career opportunities in the geosciences, one of the least diverse STEM fields. Students are conducting research projects with a faculty mentor that contribute to local community resiliency and sustainability. They meet with professional scientists to learn about their career paths and visit local employers to learn more about the skills needed for the geoscience workforce. A highlight of the GEOPATHS experience is taking field excursions to spectacular geologic areas and trying out storm chasing!
This project research is grounded in the Model of Social Influence, which posits that student self-efficacy, identity, and sense of belonging are important for persistence and success in STEM. Through longitudinal surveys and interviews, we are examining if and how students come to see themselves as belonging to the geoscience community.
Jay Labov
Currently STEM Education Consultant
Thank you for submitting this video. Community engagement and relevance of programs are important components for attracting and retaining a diverse group of students to a course or program. After viewing this video and looking at your website, I have several questions that I hope you can address:
Justice Walker
Margaret Lingane
Sharon Locke
Director and Professor
Hi Jay and thank you for visiting our video and posing these questions. We are excited to share our project! The SIUE GEOPATHS project has 21 students, one above our original planned cohort size. We are in the third year of the project. As you might guess, some of our activities were delayed because of the pandemic. For example, we planned to take students on two summer field excursions--storm chasing and geology of the U.S Western National Parks, but had to delay this activity by one year. So our first cohort, featured in the video, did the field excursions last summer and our second cohort is preparing to go this summer. We have also been able to add a third field excursion in summer 2022--a trip to learn about volcanic and other environmental hazards in El Salvador, which is leaving this Sunday! This excursion includes students from both cohorts.
Here are some specific comments to respond to your questions:
1) As a regional university of modest size, we do not have a geology/geoscience department. However, we do have faculty geologists, meteorologists/climatologists, and geomorphologists scattered across different departments. So one of our key goals for this project was to provide extra-curricular activities that really highlight career options in geology, climatology, and earth and environmental science. The undergraduate students are getting experiences through field excursions, research, and seminars that would not otherwise be available to them. SIUE does offer an introductory earth science course that enrolls about 200 students a semester, but most students use this to fulfill general education requirements rather than as entry into a geoscience-related degree.
2) Any science-interested student is eligible to apply for the GEOPATHS program, and we aimed to select students who expressed curiosity about geosciences but did not necessarily know much about it. We have data to show that a very small fraction of Illinois high school students indicate geosciences as an intended major, so as at many U.S. institutions, geoscience career awareness among our university freshmen and sophomores is low. Since the students have entered our GEOPATHS program when they are sophomores, we are now just starting to see career intentions and outcomes for the graduating scholars. One has entered geoscience graduate school, one is accepted to graduate school, one is interviewing with the US Geological Survey, one is a water quality intern, and one of our most recent graduates specifically mentioned GEOPATHS as impactful. So we think the track record so far is good!
We are interviewing and administering surveys regularly to collect data to determine if and how GEOPATHS has and is having an impact. We are using Mica Estrada's model of social influence to explore changes over time in scholars' self-efficacy, geoscience identity, and sense of belonging. As scholars graduate, we will be able to improve our understanding of the program's impacts and the relevance of the model.
3) I love this question! The students are very inspiring and very curious. Especially during the field excursions, when we have extended time together, they share their college experiences with each other and they ask the faculty about their personal and career pathways. The faculty enjoyed the project so much that we submitted a proposal for scholarship funds through the NSF S-STEM program and happily were successful. This new project will provide scholarships for graduate students studying watershed sciences from an interdisciplinary perspective and include a new course on sustainable watersheds that could be taught by any GEOPATHS faculty. So, I do think the faculty are more attuned to the value of interdisciplinarity. We hope that GEOPATHS scholars will consider applying for an NSF S-STEM scholarship to continue their geoscience-focused education.
Thank you for your questions and please let me know if additional information would be helpful.
Justice Walker
Margaret Lingane
Jay Labov
Currently STEM Education Consultant
Sharon, Thanks very much for your thoughtful responses to my questions. This is really a great opportunity for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. And the fact that you have geoscientists embedded in other departments makes the opportunities for collaboration, integration, and connections that much more doable.
Meagen Pollock
It's great to see another GEOPAths project video! I was wondering about whether your project is a summer experience only or if it continues during the academic year. We are thinking about shifting our experiences into the academic year to let us nurture long-term, sustained mentoring relationships with our students. Do your longitudinal surveys reveal any insights about the duration of the project? Thank you!
Margaret Lingane
Sharon Locke
Director and Professor
Hi Meagen and thank you for viewing the video. GEOPAths Rocks! The student program runs during the academic year and summer. Students are supported by the program to participate in summer field excursions, summer community internships, and academic year research experiences. Career seminars, community volunteer opportunities, and social events are offered throughout the year. Now that the pandemic has eased, we are able to have more consistent and longer duration programming, and I do think this has had a positive influence. Our excellent graduate students send out a calendar of monthly events and opportunities to stay in touch. Next year, they will work with each scholar to create an Individual Development Plan. As the project progressed, I became increasingly aware that this informal mentoring between the graduate students and undergraduates was having many benefits. As a result, I have tried to strengthen this aspect of the project.
Specific to your question, we are tracking attendance at the program activities and will be able see if more frequent participation translates to differences in the survey results. I feel that it is still too early to interpret the survey data because of the pandemic-related programming delays. That said, we originally planned for students to have two years of support from the program, but we now work with them all the way to graduation and invite program alumni to events. I think the longer duration is important and think your plan to extend mentoring is right on!
Justice Walker
Margaret Lingane
Margaret Lingane
Graduate Research Assistant
I want to start by thanking you all for being here and viewing our video! I am one of the graduate research assistants on the GEOPATHS project at SIUE. I became a research assistant working with GEOPATHS scholars in the fall of 2021. While I have been on this project for less than a year, it has not only provided meaningful experiences for scholars but also for myself. Working with our lead presenter, Dr. Sharon Locke, and co-presenter, Logan Pelo has allowed us to make a positive impact on students where diversity, access, inclusion, and equity are embedded in everything we do. I hope you enjoyed our video and got a good look into what the GEOPATHS project is about!
Logan Pelo
Justice Walker
Assistant Professor
This looks like an incredibly impactful program—based on the video presentation. As I watched all the student reports on their experiences I wondered if you:
(1) would share a bit more about the research experience designs and how they might be distinct from other interventions that support undergraduate research experiences. I ask this because I wonder what experiential (or learning) design features of the intervention you all put together might be credited for student outcomes? Stated differently, could you share a bit about what you think might be a play in supporting these self-concept outcomes? You seem to get at this in your response #2 to Jay's question where you the Mica Estrada model.
(2) Also, what instruments and analysis are you conducting to assess outcomes—I ask this for other researchers initiating work using self-concept measures you consider (and that I agree) are insightful?
Logan Pelo
Logan Pelo
Graduate Research Assistant
Thank you for your wonderful questions. As a former undergraduate scholar, and now a graduate research assistant on the program, I feel uniquely equipped to help answer your questions.
The summer programming, which includes our storm chasing experience, national parks tours, and (this summer) El Salvador research exchange, are all intended to promote education, inclusion, and identity. Professors with a wide range of backgrounds attend these trips and constantly inform students on the wonderful world of geoscience around them.
For example, we visited half a dozen national parks last summer and learned about geologic formations from Dr. Sharon Locke and hydrologic processes from Dr. Shunfu Hu. We even had a qualified astronomer guide us through multiple nights of 'dark sky' stargazing. There is a bit of magic about these kinds of in the field experiences that we hope encourage scholars to see that geoscience is all around them, and geoscience professionals have a broad range of experience and career options. Scholars are also offered multiple seminars and question-and-answer sessions with geoscience professionals and educators every semester.
To answer your second question, we are gauging scholars' sense of geoscience identity and inclusion through qualitative coding of guided interviews and structured online surveys. Scholars begin the interview and survey process when they enter the program, and due to the mutli-year nature of their participation, we are able to check in with them over multiple semesters to gather this data.
We are also measuring sholars' participation in extra-curricular education programs we offer, such as FAA Drone Small-UAV part 107 certification and HAZWOPER certification programs. These are offered to students free-of-charge.
Hope this helps! Please reply with any follow-up questions!
Anne Kern
Professor
It is always amazing to work alongside faculty mentors on the faculty member's research project. Besides fieldwork, are there any obligations for students to work during the school year on perhaps more “mundane” things such as helping to prepare reports, gathering and cataloging equipment and such in preparation for field work, etc.? How are the undergraduates recruited and are they compensated for their time? Are there any graduate students supported by this project?
Logan Pelo
Logan Pelo
Graduate Research Assistant
Our GeoPATHs program here at SIUE is specifically tailored to undergraduate students and programming. The recruiting process is broad, but scholars who apply should:
1. Demonstrate a willingness to work as an undergraduate researcher and extracurricular learner.
2. Have interest in working with graduate students or faculty mentors.
3. Have at least 5 semesters left in their time as an undergraduate.
This last recommendation is flexible. It is intended to ensure the scholars have enough time to take advantage of all of the financial and educational resources the program makes available to them.
To answer your other questions, the research that undergraduates take on is very diverse. I myself worked as a field assistant for a graduate thesis on logjams, as well as a literature reviewer / compiler for a geography professor.
These undergraduates are compensated through the program for their time working towards their own projects, or working with grad students or faculty mentors. We typically have a number of hours-per-week needed to qualify for the full program stipend, but have adjusted the stipend to meet students with the amount of hours they can commit to on any given semester.
Students are also compensated by way of extracurricular education and certification programs. For instance, the program payed for me to take my FAA small UAV drone license certification test, after providing funding for me to attend a class on the test material.
Justice Walker
Anne Kern
Professor
Hello Logan,
Thanks for replying to my comment. Do you provide some Profession Development for your UG researchers/participants on how to negotiate and perhaps understand the social and political equities of the STEM and research field? Possible instructional modules about understanding "institutional power," how to advocate one's cultural/personal wealth, and how to network in STEM/research disciplines could be vital in helping diverse students find richness in their unique STEM careers.
Cheers,
Anne
Justice Walker
Logan Pelo
Graduate Research Assistant
Hello, everyone! Thank you for viewing our video.
We are so happy to share our experience with the GeoPATHs program. I myself am now a graduate assistant on the GeoPATHs program here at SIUE, and co-presenter of this video. But I was once (very recently) on the scholar side of this experience as an undergraduate. I am very proud of the research I was able to pursue with the help of the grant funding. The program also allowed me to work with graduate students and faculty mentors to develop my understanding of the broad topics contained within geoscience.
Now I am paying those experiences forward by helping to organize educational programming for GeoPATHs scholars here at SIUE. Margaret and I have recently begun working with faculty to come up with individual development plans for each scholar. We hope that these encourage research, a sense of geoscience identity, and feeling of geoscience community belonging.
Justice Walker
Chris Atchison
Great video, even better project. Congrats, all.