| NSF Org: |
RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 11, 2019 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 20, 2019 |
| Award Number: | 1911347 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Brandon Jones
mbjones@nsf.gov (703)292-4713 RISE Integrative and Collaborative Education and Research (ICER) GEO Directorate for Geosciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2019 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2023 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $306,036.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $306,036.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
886 CHESTNUT RIDGE ROAD MORGANTOWN WV US 26505-2742 (304)293-3998 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
G150 South Agricultural Sciences Morgantown WV US 26506-6108 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | IUSE |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.050 |
ABSTRACT
Part 1
The West Virginia University's (WVU) Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Department of Geology and Geography, College of Education and Human Services and Center for Excellence in STEM Education are working together to develop regionally-relevant classroom activities and community-based participatory research projects to bridge the high school (HS) to college divide while creating the HS teachers needed to sustain such work past funding through WVUteach, WVU's HS STEM teacher preparation program. The researchers will create a new teacher licensure in Earth and Space Science (ESS) to increase the number of qualified geoscience teachers in West Virginia (WV) schools. The project brings together a leadership team with expertise in supervising undergraduate research and teaching in the geosciences, research on recruitment and retention to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) majors and careers, and science teacher preparation provides a rich opportunity to develop a model of geoscience teacher development that can significantly change the way geoscience is taught in HS. The proposed evidence-based model assumes that students are more likely to engage in the geosciences if they have meaningful opportunities to engage with real-world problems using modern instruments incorporated into project-based instruction (PBI). If the model proves efficacious, the project team's close connections with UTeach leadership will allow dissemination throughout the 45 UTeach universities which currently enroll over 6,000 future STEM teachers, engaging this community in a potential long-term research project to study the impact on what is taught in geoscience classrooms and how that impacts students' choice of geoscience majors and careers.
Part 2
In 2017, over 50% of geoscientists at all degree levels (69% doctoral) reported having taken a HS geoscience course, demonstrating the importance of offering such courses at the HS level to participation in the field at the university level and beyond. The WV Department of Education adapted the Next Generation Science Standards and restructured the HS science curriculum to include an ESS class for all WV 9th graders. WVDE policy allows any teacher with science certification to teach ESS courses, as pathways to obtain ESS certification are limited. Yet teachers from other disciplines are unlikely to be able to expose students to geosciences career possibilities, and the largest producers of teachers in WV (including WVU) do not have an ESS Certification pathway. There is also a lack of direct access to analytical instruments that can connect PBI and 'real' science, in both HS and undergraduate courses. In a step toward solving this problem, this project will provide the WV teaching workforce with the ideal expertise to engage HS students in solving community-based problems through research projects using modern instruments incorporated into PBI to create a deeper sense of learning. These teachers' preparation will include utilizing PBI to engage HS students in conducting community-based research. Pre-service teachers will be prepared in undergraduate research, research methods and teaching methods courses to conduct in-situ geochemical analyses using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) instruments to engage students in answering scientific questions, skills that they will bring to the classroom as pre-service and later, in-service teachers. Thus, teachers and students will be provided with access to easy-to-use, transportable devices to provide data relevant to many scientific questions of interest to students in the region. These devices will be shared in courses that prepare future geoscientists and STEM teachers and by teacher graduates, strengthening the geosciences pathway across HS and college. The proposed project will increase the number of HS students who arrive at college aware of geosciences majors and career opportunities by providing them with ESS teachers who can educate students about the nature of geoscience research and research methods. By integrating pXRF instruments into the proposed undergraduate research, research methods and teaching methods courses and into WV HS classrooms and creating a sense of place-based science, we will create a pipeline to encourage students to enter the geosciences. The project will enrich classrooms for mentor HS teachers who host participating preservice student teachers, providing these teachers professional development and exposing their students to enhanced community-based research projects using modern instruments, further increasing impact. This will be sustained after the project's conclusion as it will be embedded in the WVUteach program, producing licensed teachers prepared to engage their students in research.
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.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
WVU GEOPAths Outcomes Report
We purchased two portable instruments (Bruker CTX-600) to easily determine most metal concentrations in a variety of environmental materials. These instruments work on the principle of X-ray fluorescence (XRF), a modern analytical technique applicable to industries as varied as cement manufacturing, scrap metal sorting, pharmaceutical testing, forensic analysis, mining and environmental consulting. We also adapted vendor-supplied materials create an X-ray radiation safety PowerPoint training guide and multiple-choice test for users that met WV State standards. Properly trained teachers can check out the instruments and use them to develop place-based Project-Based Instruction (PBI) experiments to engage students in the geosciences. To help teachers with ideas, teacher candidates at WVU developed five lesson plans and six additional topic ideas. Undergraduate students in a WVU Soil Science class used the instrument in nine undergraduate course research projects, six of which would be appropriate for high school students and will be made accessible to future teacher candidates from which to build PBI lessons.
A new class, GEO 376, Research Methods for Future Teachers in Geosciences, was created and geosciences content was integrated into each disciplineversion of 376 (BIO, CHEM, and PHYS). Given the state’s decision not to approve stand-alone Earth and Space Science licensure, the focus of this GEOPAths project shifted to ensuring all science teachers have the resources to call upon if placed in an earth science classroom, and some ideas for integrated interest in geosciences into their own discipline. Project staff remain engaged in teaching research methods and in teacher professional learning in the state and will ensure lesson ideas become developed and developed lessons are shared through the state’s teacher professional learning management system. This system simultaneously serves as a lesson sharing resource and a location for teachers to gain professional learning credits.
A professional development workshop for in-service and preservice teachers was held in the summer of 2021 by Dr Carver and his students. Participants met online for two days, learning the basics of project-based instruction, some X-Ray Fluorescence theory, and radiation safety. On the third and final day participants came to WVU's campus with their projects mostly developed and samples ready to test. Participants received additional, instrument-specific safety training and two of Co-PI Carver's graduate students were on hand to assist participants as they prepared samples and collected data from the XRF for analysis. The finalized units of instruction were turned in to project leads, Carver and Licwov-Channell later in the summer.
Last Modified: 12/29/2023
Modified by: Louis M Mcdonald
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