Search for: All records

Since 2019, online introductory physical and historical geology lecture/laboratory courses have been available to all Mississippi community college students through the Mississippi Virtual Community College consortium. Funded through an NSF IUSE GEOPAths program, the Geo-SPARCC courses begin each unit with Mississippi examples for student geographic relevance. Not only do the GLY courses fulfill a physical science requirement for students, but they also reintroduce geoscience content that most Mississippi students have not been exposed to since 8th grade. Since many geology majors accidentally learn about geoscience majors and career opportunities, an introduction to geological content at the community college level may help to recruit students to the discipline sooner. An early challenge to the Geo-SPARCC project was that the GLY courses were not widely known beyond their host institution; enrolled students further noted that their advisors enrolled them or told them to take specific courses. Additionally, early GLY student enrollment did not reflect the demographics of the Mississippi community college population, and the pandemic resulted in the forced cancellation of field excursions for 4 semesters/2 years. As the Geo-SPARCC project concludes, progress has been made: 1) Through outreach, community college advisors have been made aware of the online geology course options; 2) GLY student demographics now reflect the Mississippi community college population; and 3) Field excursion opportunities are again available for community college students. Persistence is needed by professional geologists and 4-year institutions to maintain awareness of geology course options at the community college level, and geoscience career opportunities for those who choose to pursue a geology or environmental science degree.