The primary goal of this GP-EXTRA project is to increase the number of dually enrolled high school students at Everett Community College's Ocean Research College Academy (ORCA) who identify an interest in pursuing a geosciences baccalaureate degree upon earning their high school diploma. Through targeted, oceanographic research experiences with private and governmental collaborators during the summer that continues into the academic year, this project will increase the number of high school seniors professing an interest in pursuing a geoscience major in university. Research experiences are effective in attracting and retaining students in STEM fields, and this project seeks to embed collaboration and mentoring. Mentoring for and by women increases the likelihood of changing the longstanding culture in STEM, where competition is valued over cooperation and collaboration. This approach enhances access for underserved students in STEM: women, students of color and low income students.
Through the deployment of remote monitoring CTD instrumentation and deliberate mentoring by the ORCA faculty/staff and practicing geoscientists from three different employment sectors during the summer, ten students annually will experience field work, monitoring instrumentation and management of the data stream. This experience will form the basis for students to generate further testable questions while receiving research support by the project team and scientific collaborators during the academic year along with financial support. Students will demonstrate their transition to independent researchers through showcasing their research at geoscience conferences, and regional events. Summer research experiences represent an effective mechanism to retain undergraduate students once they are in the STEM pipeline, but less understood is the impact a summer research experience has on high school seniors as a motivator for declaration of a specific STEM major. By providing exposure to all aspects of a geoscience career, with special attention given to the influence of collaboration, relationship building and mentoring, this project will contribute to an understanding of how to embed research into dual enrollment coursework and which aspects are the most impactful. This project also advances knowledge specific to the Puget Sound which remains an understudied estuary. Local understanding of complex systems is a result of in-situ deployments, which rarely provide the long-term data stream that this project will create. Recent, drastic temperature spikes in the area require year round monitoring. Engaging high school students underrepresented in geosciences in the hands-on deployment of real-time instruments, giving them access to utilize and distill the complicated data stream and share these data with others represents powerful, confidence building opportunities for students as they increase community connections. The broader impacts of this project will provide further opportunities for students to showcase their work, both locally, nationally, and internationally, building their confidence and the opportunity view themselves as scientists. Engaging dually enrolled students in authentic research optimizes the intent to maximize the personal involvement in creating new knowledge. Since data is telemetered live online, anyone has access to it. This provides pride of ownership by the students, who will then further engage in problems that require innovative solutions to benefit society as a whole.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
