EARTH SCIENCE EDUCATION
No matter what science they’re teaching, they [teachers] need resources… I think the controversial issues are more of a deterrent than monetary resources."
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During a discussion, we read a study con- ducted by the National Science Foundation that revealed how historically excluded groups (Hispanic, Black, and American Indian/Native Alaskan) only make up 5-7% of geoscience degree holders compared to 16-17% of all STEM degrees (O’Connell & Holmes, 2011). This made us ask ourselves, why do the earth sciences have significantly lower diversity rates? After some thinking, I realized that I too did not have access to Earth Science education in high school.
This inspired Dr. McLeod and I to develop a survey intended to reach 1300 high schools in the State of Ohio. The goal is to evaluate how accessible Physical Geology and Environmental Sciences are to high school students based on available classes, teacher education, resources, etc.
To learn more about science standards and cur- riculum in the State of Ohio (
https://education.ohio.gov/ getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Science/Ohios- Learning-Standards), I met with Lydia Hunter, Cathy Holmes, and Robin Deems from the Ohio Department of Education. Lydia described a long process for how curriculum is created in Ohio, which can be viewed here:
https://education.ohio.gov/ getattachment/Topics/Learning-in-Ohio/Standard-Revision- Overview/
StandardsRevisonProcess.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US. The process is very transparent and aims to involve the general public as well as scientists and educators to participate in the creation of standards and/or curriculum. Lydia and her col- leagues are all in agreement that this process is very effective; however, legislation sometimes places constraints on the work.
“Here in Ohio, there is legislation that says Ohio is not allowed to adopt any standards that have been developed by a multi-state consortium. State law prohibits us from using standards created by the NGSS [Next Generation Science Standards -
https://www.nextgenscience.org/]. We can make Ohio standards that have components that are the same and accomplish some of the same objectives… but we could never, no matter what the public input was or for the committees, if they said we would like to adopt NGSS, we would not be allowed to do that.”
When asked if resources might impact the ability to teach Earth Sciences, Lydia explained, “No matter what science they’re teaching, they [teachers] need resources… I think the controversial issues are more of a deterrent than monetary resources.” Soon after, she mentioned how schools answer to their communities. Cathy elaborated on this, “Ohio is a local control state, and school districts do have the power to decide what they teach. Even though the standards are state created and are accessible, schools can decide that they do not wish
www.aipg.org
to teach the standards and they do not have to.” While this can have negative effects, Lydia added that districts, such as Cincinnati Public Schools, are free to adopt instructional resources which align to NGSS.
After our conversation, I realized that this issue cannot be tackled by simply fixing the State of Ohio’s standards and curriculum. Lydia and her team felt the same way, and what we discussed sparked conversation in their office. There are in fact Earth science concepts in the Ohio Learning Standards but at the high school level, these courses are not required of all students. The first step in igniting interest in Earth sci- ence careers is providing exposure throughout high school. Recently, I created GEODES (Global Education Outreach for Diversifying the Earth Sciences) to expose teachers and students to Earth Science disciplines. To learn more about our mission, visit our newly published website: geodeseduca-
tion.org.
We hope that by gaining input from high school teachers, we can gauge how many schools offer Earth Science education. There is a myriad of global problems related to the Earth sci- ences which will require creative solutions. By creating equal education opportunity, we hope to not only better diversify the Earth Sciences, but to create better problem solvers and more informed voters for future generations.
References
Duran, G., Wright, V., Cohen, P. (2021, January 7). The Future of Unlearning Racism in Geoscience. Medium. Retrieved February 22, 2022, from
https://urgeoscience.medium. com/unlearning-racism-in-geoscience-1f40aa32216e
Next Generation Science Standards. (n.d.). Next Generation Science Standards. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from
https://www.nextgenscience.org/
O’Connell, S., & Holmes, M. A. (2011). Obstacles to the recruit- ment of minorities into the geosciences:
A call to action. GSA Today, 21(6), 52–54. https://doi. org/10.1130/G105GW.1.
Ohio Department of Education. (2019). Ohio’s Learning Standards and Model Curriculum: Science.
http://education.ohio.gov/getattachment/Topics/Learning- in-Ohio/Science/Ohios-Learning-Standards-and-MC/
SciFinalStandardsMC060719.pdf.aspx?lang=en-US
The National Science Foundation. (n.d.). URGE: Unlearning Racism in Geoscience. Retrieved February 25, 2022, from
https://urgeoscience.org/
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