Clark Atlanta University Earth System Science Program Earth System Science Education for the 21 Cent

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Clark Atlanta UniversityEarth System Science
ProgramEarth System Science Education for the 21
CenturyAnnual Meeting Fairbanks, Alaska

• August , 2005
• Overview of ESSE 21 Project
• Mapping What Exists
• while looking at
• Some Geoscientists Numbers and the Implications
• Submitted by
• Brenda Chee Wah, MEd.
• Research Associate, Clark Atlanta University
• Atlanta, GA

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Presentation Goals

• Provide an overview of ESSE 21 diversity fact
  finding project.
• Examination of the geoscientist faculty numbers
  among some HBCUs.
• Identify the implications for these numbers to
  attract more minorities entering the geosciences
  today at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI)
• Highlight some of the issues facing faculty and
  students, which may hinder minorities seeking
  geoscience careers.

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Mapping What Existsat MSIs the ESSE 21
Project

• The need
• To dialogue with new minority serving faculty and
  other faculty members from non-traditional
  disciplines with a geoscience focus to form
  future collaboratives.
• The purpose
• To identify and provided assistance to new
  minority serving geoscience faculty/instructors
  and others to develop or adapt courses and
  curricula already tested by ESSE 21 faculty.

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Mapping What Exists

• Areas for Investigation
• Identify among selected MSIs, those offering
  geoscience programs, courses or degrees and their
  academic department of origin.
• Who are these geoscientists faculty or
  instructors and what is their ESSE related field
  of expertise at the institutions?
• Invite other faculty from non-traditional
  disciplines which have included earth science
  concepts to enter the dialogue to enhance their
  ESS-related courses.

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Mapping What Exists

• Activities
• List the type of geoscience program presently
  offered to students at selected MSI institutions.
  (MSc, BSc geoscience degrees, ESSE courses, ESS
  minors, ESS related programs or non-credited
  summer or evening introductory ESSE programs).
• Initiate contact with identified MSI geoscience
  or ESSE -related faculty to ensure that the
  database is provides accurate information and
  explanation of courses, curricula, programs
  identified via- websites, pages, university
  department sites, etc.

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Rationale for the MAPPING

• Faculty at Minority Serving Institutions (MSI)
  are aware of the reality and challenges for
  themselves, and students to introduce and
  maintain successful ESS programs, courses and
  their peculiar institutional situation.
• Offering services without seeking the advise or
  entering discussion with other MSIs will cause
  any intervention programs to be under-utilized
  and not tailored for individual needs and issues.

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Finding the HBCU Numbers

• In 2003 the Clark Atlanta University(CAU) in
  Atlanta, Georgia was awarded a National Science
  Foundation (NSF) grant to examine the status of
  women science, mathematics, engineering and
  technology (STEM) faculty among Historically
  Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). By 2005,
  a database was created with the response and
  support of women STEM faculty from over sixty
  HBCUs across the United States.

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State of Affairs _at_ HBCUs 1,2,3,4sFigure 1
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Geoscience 1,2,3s _at_ HBCUs 2004Figure 2
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Clark Atlanta University (CAU) Geoscience Faculty
Figure 3
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What the Graphs Say?

• Out of 56 HBCUs there are a total of 33
  geoscience faculty, only 4 being women.
• The issues of attracting minority groups and
  women to diversify the present geoscience picture
  has become and need to be an important cause for
  action, most critical for Minority Serving
  Institutions (MSI).
• The present makeup of geoscientists does not
  represent our nations diverse population. (AGU
  Panel 6)
• Every major federal, and scientific agency is
  faced with the empty pipeline an aging
  workforce without prepared successors. Each
  groups in battle, seeking the same pool of
  talented minority scientists, pulling them from
  academia.

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Challenges for the MSI Faculty

• MSI science faculty which includes people of
  Hispanic, African American and Native American
  origins are more likely to be employed .. at
  liberal arts schools and two year
  colleges,(Marbles, 2002) with little scope for
  an ESS programs and course development.
• MSI faculty receive minority students with less
  than the required informal science readiness
  skills, to begin to teach the geosciences at the
  undergraduate levels. Issues include quality of
  early learning experiences ..how to learn
  discrete skills,.. learning science areas which
  maybe outside of their social and cultural
  context. (Fulani, 2003)
• MSI faculty teachunderrepresented students who
  do not think of Earth and space sciences when
  considering careers. (Panel Report, AGU)

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The Biggest MSI Challenge

• Reduced federal funding over the past four years,
  has caused the termination of key science
  programs at science funding agencies- HURTing-
  minority serving faculty and institutions the
  most. Unable to find adequate funding for
  graduate students and student stipend, inability
  to sustain the existing ESS program by hiring
  additional faculty, adjunct professors/instructors
  or introduce new courses make the task almost
  impossible for MSI faculty to survive.

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Geosciences Challenges for Minority Students

• Increasing trend of importing scientific talent
  to meet our science needs leaving US born
  minority students further behind. (Christian
  Science Monitor, 1994)
• There is little awareness among minority students
  about the work of geoscientists in their
  community and therefore, dont see any role
  models or area for future careers.
• Earth science may be an optional subject for
  completion at middle school in some school
  districts or even struck off the list completely,
  so after junior high minority students may have
  no interface with geosciences until undergraduate
  level, and that is maybe?
• There are few ways for schools, parents and
  community agencies .. to learn about the nature
  and variety of science careers that are
  available for their children.

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Challenges for MSI Faculty

• Poor salaries, few institutional incentives,
  unclear promotion and tenure policies provide few
  incentives for retaining minority geoscientists
  at HBCUs.
• Minority geoscientists are very few and women
  even fewer, and could not be expected to
  meaningfully mentor new minority students.
• The few geoscientists at HBCUs suffer from class
  overload, smaller lecture rooms, commitment to
  institutional committees, no graduate student,
  limited funding for new equipment, with little
  time for other important scholarly promotion
  activities- research, publication

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Where Could ESSE 21 Diversity Go Next?

• Seek the MSI faculty performing yeoman service
  at their institutions, talk and get to know
  them, their schools, challenges and strengths.
• Twin successful ESSE 21 faculty with new
  geoscience MSI faculty.
• Get information about geosciences careers in the
  media, visible for students, available for
  teachers, and the minority community to SEE.

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Where Could ESSE 21 Diversity Go Next?

• 4. Support the mentoring of all perspective
  geoscience graduate students by the ESSE 21
  community.
• 5. Combine new ways to help MSI faculty to start
  geoscience courses within their disciplines and
  help to maintain and sustain good geoscience
  programs at their institutions.
• 6. Provide some recognition to MSI faculty among
  their peers, who have established successful
  practices.

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Where Could ESSE 21 Diversity Go Next?

• 7. Establish minority undergraduate geoscience
  partnerships with nearby high or middle schools
  which have large minority populations.
• 8. Identify and invite faculty who teach
  non-traditional science disciplines to include
  earth science areas and research topics in
  political science, mass media arts, reading,
  education, public policy and environmental
  sciences. Many subjects can utilize earth science
  topics and provide a wider audience.

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Where Could ESSE 21 Diversity Go Next?

• 9. Demonstrate how ESS topics and course can be
  included and are a strong part of all
  disciplines- it is very interdisciplinary.
• 10. Provide a young geoscientists campaign among
  successful ESSE 21 community members to attend
  the AGMs. We need to demonstrate the inclusion
  and mentoring.
• 11. Help new MSI find ways to obtain funding for
  maintain and expanding ESS Programs.

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Acknowledgements

• Much thanks to
• Deborah Cook Ph.D., Associate Professor/
  Principle Investigator of the NSF ADVANCE
  Leadership Project 2003-2005 at Clark Atlanta
  University, Atlanta GA for the use of HBCU data.
  See www.advance.cau.edu for more on this study.
• Randal Mandock, Ph.D., Associate Professor/
  Director of Earth System Science Program at CAU
  for sustaining the program despite all odds at
  CAU.
• Martin Ruzek, Science Program Manager, USRA
  ESSE-21 for including my participation in this
  evolving discipline of earth system science
  education.
• ESSE-21 Diversity Team

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References

• Cook, Deborah (2005) Women Faculty in STEM
  Fields the HBCU
• Baseline Study Clark Atlanta University
  (unpublished). See
• website http//www.advance.cau.edu
• Fulani, Lenora (2003) Black Educators Must Change
  White
• Education Journal of African American Studies
  p. 69-75
• Libarkin, Julie Kurdziel, Josepha (2003)
  Research Methodologies in
• Science Education Gender and the Geosciences
  Journal of Geoscience
• Education, September, 2003
• Marbles, Manning (2002) Blacks in Higher
  Education An Endangered
• Species? Urban Spectrum, September 2003, Volume
  16, No. 8
• Sotello, Carolina Turner, Viernes (2002)
  Diversifying the Faculty A
• Guidebook for Search Committees Association
  of American Colleges and Universities.