Polar Education Conference: Improving JEDI for students interested in Polar STEM Careers

Although most environmental challenges disproportionately impact underrepresented communities, few nation-wide environmental programs effectively support or mentor students from these populations. This is particularly true of programs that train students in polar and climate sciences. The geosciences have long lacked diversity and are hampered by many barriers to entry for underrepresented students.

The field environment associated with polar and climate research can be a barrier to students who have limited access to required equipment, supplies, or pre-field training. Under-represented students also often have limited exposure to related content in school and are confronting intrinsic cultural concerns about a career in these fields. To address these issues, the University of Maine will organize and support a conference where participants will focus on 1) developing new strategies for engaging under-represented students in polar sciences, both in the field and in the classroom; 2) developing relationships and collaborations between high school educators, informal educators who are part of the Upward Bound (UB) program and professional polar scientists; and 3) establishing a dialogue towards long-term engagement between educators and the Polar STEM community.

Conference attendees will also have an opportunity to interact with students in the Juneau Icefield Research Program (JIRP) program. Positive undergraduate experiences and outdoor interest are two factors that have been attributed to attracting undergraduate students into geosciences, and a strong connection with mentors as well as summer research experiences are dominant factors in retention.

Therefore, development of programs that provide opportunities for long term mentoring from faculty and inspiring summer field or non-field research experiences for students within target demographics is an important goal. This conference focuses on developing these opportunities for students in the Polar community by leveraging existing research and education resources.

This conference will support the development of new long-term collaborations focused on supporting the engagement of under-represented students in Polar STEM fields. The participants will strategize on how to improve polar STEM education through field experiences and through the development of data-centric, problem-based educational resources for the traditional classroom.

These opportunities will not only benefit the attendees, but also the students whom they teach. Providing opportunities for students to learn about a career in Polar science is the first step in increasing a more diverse workforce within the field. The conference will be open to earth science educators and polar scientists from across the nation and to UB faculty and educators in Alaska, Washington, Maine, Florida and other UB programs.

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.