Geology (42) We are designing a new lower-division science course, entitled Geography, Resources, and Environment of Hispanic America. This course is being adapted from a course entitled Geology & Development of Modern Africa developed in 1994 with CCLI support by Barbara Tewksbury at Hamilton College. Her course was designed to attract African-American students to science and increase the awareness of other students. Our adaptation is trying to attract Hispanic students into science and geoscience majors. The course is being designed as an interdisciplinary exploration of several examples of how the physical environments of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean have influenced the prehistory, history, culture, and economy of Latin America. This material is being presented as a series of six modules that stress the role that the physical environment plays in determining culture, development, and history. The course is being designed primarily to attract Hispanic students to science and but is also serving to teach non-Hispanic students about scientific issues related to Latin America, and is satisfying 3 of the 9 hour science requirement for UTD undergraduates. The course is writing intensive and is requiring the student to partner with correspondents in Latin American universities in a research project. Enrollment is being limited to 30 students during the time that course development is supported by this grant. The course is being developed, taught, evaluated, revised, taught again, and revised again during this grant period. Evaluations are being supervised by faculty from the UTD Department of Science Education.
