The DIG CAMP: Data in Geosciences Collaboration and Mentoring Program—Teaming Latine High School and College Students for Data Use in Geosciences Project was a three-year project that iteratively developed an effective and replicable model for a university geosciences department to engage high school students in the process of collecting, evaluating, and interpreting place-based relevant data, and provided college experiences focused on the geosciences via near-peer mentoring, a residential research program, and several academic year follow-up sessions. Program activities were facilitated by a team of educators, scientists, and trained near-peer undergraduate student mentors. The project partnered the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Cruz) with Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD), which is located largely within an agricultural community. Within PVUSD, approximately 80% of students are eligible for free or reduced price lunch, and 84% are Hispanic or Latino (EdData). 

Across two cohorts, DIG CAMP engaged 34 high school students (primarily Latine, low-income, and aspiring first-generation-to-college students), enabling the teens to see science as a possible career pathway by gaining experiences that illuminated who does science, how they do it, what motivates them, and the various pathways STEM professionals took in their academics and careers. The model was developed to be disseminated to other university geosciences departments wishing to engage in meaningful education and outreach activities. An implementation handbook, including: guidance on creating a program team; recruiting, selecting, and training undergraduate mentors; planning program logistics; getting school district support for recruitment and collaboration; cultivating community science partnerships; preparing data resources; and sample high school student agendas can be found on the program’s website at https://digcamp.lawrencehallofscience.org/. 

Throughout the project, teens participated in numerous field trips hosted by community science partners. These ranged from industry to academic research to municipal services, exposing DIG CAMPers to a diversity of ways geosciences were happening and solving problems in their local community. They also conducted their own data-rich geosciences projects, many of which were presented at an American Geophysical Union conference, lived on a university campus, toured several other campuses, learned about a range of possible academic and career pathways, and received college application support. Undergraduate mentors received training and coaching on effective mentorship and had practice applying what they’d learned to support their near-peer mentees. External evaluation of the project revealed 6 key findings (an executive summary is available on the project website):  

1. After the program, DIG CAMP students identified more closely with STEM professionals, although STEM identity development extends beyond STEM professional identity.

2. DIG CAMP introduced students to a wide range of STEM professionals, and affirmed or clarified students’ career interests.

3. DIG CAMP students increased their sense of competency in data skills.

4. DIG CAMP deepened students’ valuation of science and climate change topics within their local communities.

5. DIG CAMP provided science learning experiences that were not readily available to students elsewhere in their schools and communities.

6. DIG CAMP helped students visualize higher education pathways and prepare for college.

Through surveys and focus groups, the DIG CAMP mentors shared that they valued the opportunity to work with high school students; to learn more about opportunities for teaching, outreach and education in STEM fields; and to gain skills and information to become the types of mentors that they wished they had access to when they were in high school. Undergraduates who were interested or majoring in environmental or geosciences reported that the field trips provided important exposure to jobs and careers in geosciences that they had not yet experienced in college.

The final stages of the DIG CAMP project created a long-term sustainability and scale up plan leveraging the partnership between the UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, and the school district. Together, we envisioned ways that high school students throughout the district could access some of the benefits of DIG CAMP by partnering teachers with community geosciences partners to design and implement locally relevant, data-rich geosciences curriculum units across all science content areas. Input from DIG CAMP participants highlighted several strategies that should be utilized in a new project with teachers at scale, including: (1) attending to and assessing the multifaceted nature of science identity; (2) designing for belonging, especially by incorporating family into projects and learning and by exposure to diverse members of the STEM workforce; (3) incorporate hands-on and personally meaningful projects, especially in relation to the local community; and (4) finding opportunities to discuss the interconnected and interdisciplinary aspects of climate change in local communities and with STEM professionals. This plan led to the Data in Geosciences In Teaching project (NSF #2325493).

Last Modified: 04/03/2025
Modified by: Adina Paytan