NASA MAA (MUREP AEROSPACE ACADEMY) STEM PROJECT AT YORK COLLEGE: ENSURING FUTURE STEM PIPELINE

Our ongoing K1-12 NASA-supported STEM activities has served over 5000 children since 2015, largely from groups that are undeserved and underrepresented in the sciences. These STEM activities have been successfully delivered for several years and include earth science, meteorite geology, rocketry, aerodynamics, star gazing, EV3 Mindstorm robotics, basic coding exercises, wind tunnel, 3D-printing, etc., conducted largely through our present MAA (MUREP Aerospace Academy) Project. Corporate funding from the Con Edison and National Grid ensures additional STEM dissemination to the students during the summer operation. Significant positive component of the MAA program is the availability and willingness of the former student participants (many of whom are completing STEM majors in college) to extend their helping hands to assist teachers and guide students to fulfill assigned tasks and share their rich experience to reinforce the value of STEM learning. In a way, they validate students’ participation and promote meaningful dialog with their parents, mostly first generation Americans, often with English as a second language, and lacking knowledge of the importance of the STEM disciplines and careers built around it. Recent involvement of the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Explorer’s Program, a vigorous initiative undertaken by the CUNY to bring thousands of middle school students to the various CUNY campuses, including York College, opened a formidable partnership building opportunity for the MAA to tap into the future pipeline by engaging visiting students with our STEM facilities and educating these young and curious minds about the future STEM potential both in selecting exciting academic and career options. STEM outreach delivered through hands-on, team work, in an experiential and critical thinking environment is becoming a catalyst for motivating numerous students towards earth science and relevant NASA content. This way, MAA Program is creating a STEM conscious young student body and providing a strategic recruitment tool for various undergraduate STEM disciplines. Early involvement of middle school students in STEM activities can be deemed as a powerful and viable mechanism to overcome an apparent shortage of STEM workforce representing minorities, women and financially disadvantaged groups

RECRUITING AND RETAINING K9–16 STUDENTS THROUGH FIELD- AND LABORATORY - BASED GEOSCIENCE EXPERIENCES

Since 2004, we have been directly involved with the GSA to provide access and opportunities for K9-16 students, particularly those interested in the broader aspects of geoscience-related topics, to present their field-and- laboratory based research outcomes at professional conferences and to learn from each other. So far, well-over 400 students from the U. S. and abroad have taken advantage of this opportunity and participated our topical sessions. It is quite gratifying to report that many of these students, as a result of their attendance at the GSA conference, felt a continuing need for exposure to high-level professional venues with effective knowledge-sharing and improving the level of understanding of the presented material. In addition, several presenters enthusiastically acknowledged their satisfaction with the significance of attendance at such high level meetings and potential to improve their chances of professional employment. Potential employers valued their experiential learning skills from both the educational and communications point of view and appreciated their endeavors and the preparation needed to attend and present at GSA conferences. Present-day extreme weather phenomena, environmental degradation, increased mega-flooding event, landslides, access to fresh drinking water, build-up or upgrading of aging infrastructures, etc. are closely tied to geological processes and anthropogenic practices. Students need to observe and connect geoscience concepts and understanding of the various phenomena, including representative case studies, to validate geoscience as a transformative discipline and its interdependence with other STEM disciplines such as physics, chemistry, and biology. We strongly believe that the future geoscience workforce needs to be trained from as early as the K9-12 grades via an integrated earth science curriculum that allows an open access to field-and research based content, creates inquiry-based knowledge, promotes group dynamics, and instills a sense of belonging. Given that over 70,000 K9-12 students took the Earth Science Regents examination last year in New York City alone, it will be worthwhile to work with the new cohort and provide them with a variety of learning tools to engage, inspire and attract them to the future geoscience-related workforce build-up

MULTI-FACETED GEOSCIENCE RESEARCH USING OPEN ACCESS RESOURCES: THE SUCCESSFUL PARTICIPATION OF K9-16 STUDENTS

Students interested in geosciences, for the most part, missed out their traditional field- based research activities due to strict social distancing, travel restrictions and/or lacking financial support. An absence of physical laboratory opportunities forced students to choose topics deemed doable through online research. Available data from online sources on extreme weather related case studies, flooding, droughts, groundwater depletion in urban and suburban areas, coastal erosion rate, sealevel rise, landslides, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and atmospheric pollution became quite handy and lucrative. Readily available pertinent data sources enabled K9-16 students to conduct summer research at “stay home” situations. Selective peer mentoring was also available remotely to representative students, mostly led by geology faculty. It certainly facilitated both individual and group-based learning of geoscience- related research. Group projects were very effective in promoting team dynamics by encouraging participating students to engage in discussions during breakout sessions. This aspect is very significant for students, considering geoscience-related research often requires close collaboration between multiple individuals. The retrieval of online data mostly became available to students from regularly posted information by the NASA Earth Observatory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, American Meteorological Society, European Space Agency, United States Geological Survey, and Environmental Protection Agency. Filtering of critical data and establishing their relevance to a chosen topic often required patience and proper time management. Once the data were selected, students needed to run basic statistical investigations and come up with graphical representations, document trends, and signify their bearing on the overarching research question. The outcome is that COVID 19 opened up a new dimension and pedagogical approach to engage K9-16 students in geoscience-related research. Engaged students became proficient in data collection techniques, acquired scientific communication skills, and learnt about time management. Overall, the K9-16 students involved became self- motivated and were highly successful in reaching their research goals