The GeoFORCE Texas Critical Math Connection targets a group of high school juniors and seniors who have a strong interest in majoring in geology in college, and provides them with critical interventions while in high school in order to 1) improve their math knowledge, confidence, and preparedness, and 2) engage their geoscience problem solving skills. The target students are participants in a high school outreach program called GeoFORCE Texas. The group is 82% minority, from challenged schools in rural southwest Texas and inner-city Houston. While GeoFORCE gives them a strong interest in geosciences, their high schools leave them poorly prepared for college level math. This project is investigating two critical research questions: 1. Can the persistence of students in geoscience majors be affected by improving math preparedness in high school? 2. Can an engaging geologic problem sustain interest in the geosciences and prove to be a critical incident in moving students from liking geology to majoring in geology? It is expected that together these activities will result in an easier path from high school into a college geology major, and that this will be reflected in retention and persistence data. Ultimately, the project seeks to identify an effective model for engaging more minority youth in the geosciences.
This program targeted students in rural in inner-city schools who traditionally face very tough transitions into college STEM fields. Previous experience with this group of students showed that fewer than half were able pass calculus in their first year of college, even if they had taken an high school calculus class. This grant helped those students enroll in a college level calculus class a local community colleges. It was expected that the higher level course would better prepare them for university level work. As a result of this project, 47 students were offered the opportunity to take Calculus in high school before starting college as geology majors. Twenty-five students took advantage of this opportunity and about 65% of these took and passed calculus in their first year of college. This is significant because calculus is a gateway class to the STEM fields. The impact was smaller than we hoped and this is probably due to poor preparation in their precalculus classes and a lack of rigor in the community college courses. Nevertheless, 44 of these 47 students are pursuing geology degrees despite their struggles with the required math classes. They are strongly motivated to succeed and are willing to go back and put in the work to succeed with their math classes in order to complete a geology majors.
