Postdoctoral Fellowship: STEMEdIPRF: Increasing geoscience enrollment and engagement by transforming perceptions of geoscience among students and the general public

Enrollment in geoscience departments is currently decreasing, which is projected to cause a major shortage of geoscientists in the workforce over the next decade. It is crucial that we reverse this trend as geoscientists are vital for studying and combating the effects of climate change and other geological hazards. This project aims to increase geoscience enrollment and overall engagement by identifying and transforming misperceptions of geoscience among students and the general public.

To determine the best practices for increasing geoscience enrollment and engagement, department enrollment statistics and student perceptions of and motivations for pursuing geoscience will be investigated via publicly available data and survey responses. This work will follow the Input–Environment–Output model to evaluate how inputs (e.g., student demographics, backgrounds, and perceptions) and environment (e.g., departmental factors) influence outputs (e.g., enrollment trends).

Surveys will be disseminated through university geoscience departments and YouTube to obtain a broad and diverse pool of student and general public respondents. With this data, the key factors that increase and decrease interest in geoscience among students and the general public will be identified and used to develop outreach and recruitment strategies for geoscience departments to follow to increase student enrollment and public engagement.

This project is funded by the STEM Education Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (STEM Ed PRF) program that aims to enhance the research knowledge, skills, and practices of recent doctorates in STEM, STEM education, education, and related disciplines to advance their preparation to engage in fundamental and applied research that advances knowledge within the field.

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.