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COVID-19 has created challenges and opportunities across higher education, with flow-on effects for teaching, research, and publishing. Using an archival case study approach, we analyzed 543 Journal of Geoscience Education submissions from 2018 to 2020 to determine potential impacts of the pandemic on our authors and reviewers. Trends in submission numbers and types, gender, and institutional affiliation were characterized pre- and post-COVID onset. Results indicate that though there was an initial drop in submissions post-COVID onset, submission numbers rose to typical levels a few months later. However, the proportion of Curriculum and Instruction submissions dropped by 10% post-COVID onset, whereas research submissions increased by 12.6%, representing a tenfold increase in the gap between the two. In contrast to other studies that found a decrease in submissions by women authors post-COVID onset, JGE had a 3.8% increase in initial submissions by women corresponding authors. However, there was a 12.2% decrease in revisions by women corresponding authors post-COVID onset. Women reviewers had a 2.2% lower acceptance rate post-COVID onset, though still make up over half of JGE's reviewers. Although there were more contributions from corresponding authors at research intensive institutions, reviewers from these institutions had lower acceptance rates post-COVID onset. Review and revision durations both increased post-COVID onset, and reviewer decline reasons became more specific. In response to these findings, we recommend that the geoscience education community continue to be openly understanding of work-life balance, encourage more Curriculum & Instruction scholarship, and support more contributions from authors and reviewers at non-research intensive institutions.

We used the social-cognitive choice model (Lent et al., 2018) as a framework for investigating academic and career choice in the domain of geoscience for male and female students. In addition, we explored the role of perceived connection to instructors and transformative experience as additional factors in the social-cognitive choice model. A total of 525 individuals from six geoscience departments participated. We conducted three path models with confidence in geoscience among majors (Model 1), intent to major in geoscience among non-majors (Model 2), and intent to pursue a career in geoscience (Model 3) as outcome variables. Overall, the baseline social-cognitive choice model explained a moderate amount of variance with variation by model and gender. Students' interest in and identification with geoscience was an important direct predictor of outcomes in all three models. Adding connection to instructor to the baseline model significantly increased the model fit and contributed to the amount of variance explained in Models 2 and 3, but not Model 1. Further, connection to instructor was found to mediate the relation between interest/identity and outcomes as well as directly predict outcomes in Models 2 and 3. These results held for male and female students. Adding transformative experience to the baseline plus connection to instructor model further increased the model fit and contributed to the amount of variance explained for female student in Models 2 and 3, but not for Model 1 and not for male students. Further, transformative experience was found to mediate the relation between interest/identity and outcomes as well as directly predict outcomes in all three models, but only for female students. These results suggest instructors may strengthen geoscience pathways by developing students' interest in geoscience, establishing connections with students, and, for female students, fostering transformative experiences.

Meeting the future demand for a qualified geoscience workforce will require efforts to increase recruitment, retention, and graduation of an increasingly diverse student body. Doing this successfully requires renewed attention to the needs and characteristics of underrepresented students, which include ethnic and cultural minorities, women, and students with disabilities. We synthesize the current literature on successful science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity programs and programs in the geosciences specifically through the lens of educational macrosystems. Macrosystems are an element of an approach to analysis of educational systems and institutions that adopts a social-ecological model. Interacting subsystems of microsystems, mesosystems, macrosystems, and exosystems operate together to contribute to student success. STEM fields in general and geoscience in particular have benefited from recent research into microsystems, the student-centric, intrinsic aspects of success. The synthesis we present here is intended to add a new dimension to this body of literature, highlighting reports from successful STEM and geoscience-specific programs that have worked to strengthen macrosystems, which are extrinsic factors that surround students. These include peer support and faculty mentoring networks, institutional bridge programs, systemic pedagogy reforms, and purposeful work to improve campus climate, culture, and accountability for diversity. This synthesis is not comprehensive but rather aims to highlight and illustrate elements of selected successful programs. We conclude with general recommendations and observations intended to be helpful to the geosciences education community in directing future work to optimize macrosystems in support of diversifying the geosciences.

The geoscience education research (GER) community has produced a collaborative research framework that summarizes guiding questions for future research to inform and improve undergraduate geoscience teaching and learning. The GER Framework (St. John [Ed.], 2018a) was developed through an iterative process involving multiple stages of community input. In total, approximately 200 geoscience educators and researchers contributed to this project in one or more of the following capacities: as authors, reviewers, survey respondents, workshop participants, webinar participants, town hall participants, and/or focus group participants. Review of survey data, reports, publications, and discussions resulted in a set of guiding questions and research strategies for ten research areas where individual researchers can make important contributions. While presented as distinct research areas, the ten themes have numerous cross-theme opportunities that integrate content areas, skills, and types of students. Cross-theme recommendations regarding strategies for future research are described here, along with suggested synergies with other national efforts in geoscience and STEM education.

Gestures are physical manifestations of cognitive processes. Geology students often use gestures to describe geologic features and processes. The gestures allow students to convey 3- and 4-dimensional information about the rocks. Studying and characterizing these gestures can be useful in understanding students' learning processes; however, previous attempts to categorize gestures used in geologic contexts by existing classification schemes have been unsuccessful. The most commonly used schemes developed by cognitive science researchers are too simplistic to capture the full range of gestures used by students and professional geologists. Therefore, we have developed a new classification scheme to categorize the most common gestures we see being used in a geologic context. This classification scheme describes both the "gesture type"--the shape the hands make--and the "gesture function"--the meaning or purpose of the gesture. We used a hermeneutical approach to interpret gesture meaning, drawing from concurrent speech and contextual surroundings when the gestures were made. We categorized 5 gesture types: "point," "domain," "flat-hand," "frame," and "form gestures." We categorized 11 gesture functions: tracing, highlighting, locational, directional, rotational, constraining, sizing, emphasis, sequential, illustrative, and constructive gestures. We subdivided gesture functions into first-order and second-order gesture functions, depending on their complexity. Through this classification scheme, we are able to categorize and describe the vast majority of gestures used in a geologic context. If we want to better understand how, when, and why geology students use gestures, and how those gestures communicate their conceptual understanding of geologic features and processes, we need a consistent vocabulary to describe it. This lexicon provides a necessary tool for future work in studying embodied cognition within a geologic context and for assessing students' understanding of geologic concepts.

Sequence stratigraphy is a major research subject in the geosciences academia and the oil industry. However, the geoscience education literature addressing students' understanding of the basic concepts of sequence stratigraphy is relatively thin, and the topic has not been well explored. We conducted an assessment of 27 students' conceptions of four central principles of sequence stratigraphy. Ten juniors, 15 seniors, and two graduate-level students were enrolled in undergraduate stratigraphy courses at three research-intensive universities in the midwestern United States. Fifty percent of students were majoring in geology and forty percent in environmental geosciences. Data collection methods included semistructured (videotaped) interviews, which were conducted after the sequence stratigraphy lectures. Using constant comparative analysis, we documented students' conceptions about eustasy, relative sea level, base level, and accommodation. Results indicated that students poorly integrated temporal and spatial scales in their sequence stratigraphic models, and that some alternative conceptions are more deeply rooted than others, especially those related to eustasy and base level. Additionally, students frequently omitted subsidence as another controlling factor on accommodation. Other findings indicated a low level of familiarity with the classic marginal marine profile and associated sedimentary structures. This study documents the most critical concepts likely to be resistant to conceptual change through instruction in sequence stratigraphy.

The focus of this research was to investigate how students learn to do fieldwork through observation. This study addressed the following questions: (1) Can mobile eye-tracking devices provide a robust source of data to investigate the observations and workflow of novice students while participating in a field exercise? If so, what are the strengths and limitations of mobile eye tracking? (2) If these devices offer a unique source of data to investigate student work, what findings might be helpful for improving field instruction? To address these questions, we used mobile eye-tracking devices in a pilot study to collect video from students completing mapping exercises during a geology field course. Data were collected from six students participating in two different parts of an exercise where they were asked to create geological maps of an area based on their field observations. From this study, we learned that conducting eye-tracking research in field conditions is technically demanding and operationally difficult. We found that most of our analysis was based on reviewing the scene video and did not require the eye-tracking information. In reviewing the scene videos, substantive features of students' observational practices were exposed. We found that students struggle with foundational mapping practices, miss opportunities to collect key data, and are often distracted or disengaged during direct instruction. We observed instances of swarm behavior where students tend to group around outcrops even when nominally working independently. We also noted key differences in student behavior working individually compared with group mapping. We believe these findings provide data for geoscience educators to consider when thinking about ways in which to develop the observational skills of their students and to design appropriate field course instruction.

Native American nations in the United States have a unique legal status that is rooted in a complex relationship between the United States federal government, individual state and local governments and tribal authorities. Although geosciences are often at the center of these relationships, especially as they pertain to the development of natural resources, tribal economics, and environmental stewardship, Native Americans remain severely underrepresented in advanced geoscience education. We evaluated the effectiveness of a culturally grounded, field-based geoscience education program for Native American adolescents using pre- and post-program surveys. The results showed that at the end of the program, youth were more likely to agree that their tribe uses science to manage natural resources, their tribe has always used science, and earth and rocks make them who they are. These responses were related to an increased likelihood to agree that what can be learned in school is important to their tribe, that they will go to university, and that they could be scientists as adults. These findings highlight the importance of two factors in helping to create pathways toward the geosciences for Native youth: 1) perceived relevance of science to tribes, and 2) self-concepts (e.g., concepts of self as earth, rocks, and scientist).

This qualitative study examines the experience of 12 Native American youth who participated in culturally appropriate geoscience summer programs throughout California. These programs have been shown to change participating youths' perceptions of science. After the programs, the youth are more likely to describe science as something tribes use to manage natural resources and have been using for a long time, something that is not only learned in classrooms, and that they can live a cultural way of life and still be scientists. In this study we used hermeneutic phenomenology to understand the experience of the participating youth. Semistructured, life-world, pre- and postinterviews were designed to elucidate participants' program experience. These were coded and analyzed following phenomenological methodology. Our analysis shows the function of program elements in providing a supportive path for student participants into science building on a base of cultural and individual assets. The results suggest that having a supportive community that is familial, supportive, and empowering, and in which youth can express their culture while participating in outdoor programming provides the foundation to approach the science content. Moreover, positive connections between nature and our science content are made in this context, broadening participants' concept of science to include outdoor and field sciences. This provides scaffolding in which these new conceptions of science as nature, and nature as science, can be applied to participants' lives outside of the program, and also increases a sense of science identity and an accompanying shift in aspirations to become tribal science leaders.

Women are underrepresented in many undergraduate geoscience programs. Some departments are more successful at recruiting and retaining female students than others. To understand why, we investigated potential differences between more and less successful geoscience departments in terms of social support, institutional supports, institutional barriers, perceived connection to instructors, and transformative experiences. We collected data from 2,041 undergraduate geoscience students enrolled in six geoscience departments at public, four-year institutions across the United States. We recruited two departments that were successful at graduating a high percentage of female students compared to the national average (high-success sites), two departments with a moderate percentage (medium-success sites), and two with a low percentage (low-success sites). Students at high-success sites reported greater institutional supports, greater perceived connection to instructors, and lower institutional barriers than did students at medium- and low-success sites. Nonmajors at high-success sites reported higher levels of transformative experience than nonmajors at low-success sites. No significant differences were found between medium- and low-success sites. Across all sites, female students perceived less of a connection to their instructors and endorsed a lower level of transformative experience than did male students. We did not find gender differences in terms of the other factors. We also did not find gender by site interactions, suggesting that the success of high-success sites in recruiting and retaining women was associated with supporting all students. These results suggest departments can increase effectiveness in recruiting and retaining female student by increasing institutional supports, reducing institutional barriers, connecting with students, and fostering transformative experiences. [This research was supported by the National Science Foundation Gender in Science and Engineering program.]

Field instruction is a critical piece of undergraduate geoscience majors' education, and fieldwork remains a major part of the work of professional geologists. Despite the central importance of field education, there exists relatively little educational research exploring how students learn to solve problems in geological fieldwork. This study adds tools and insight to the study of field problem solving. We used GPS tracking of students engaged in independent field examinations, and developed two parallel coding approaches for analyzing student navigational choices. Taken together, our coding enables correlation of navigational characteristics with performance and lends insight into problem solving by building on a conceptual framework modified from the cognitive science field of Naturalistic Decision Making. Our results indicate that most advanced geology undergraduates are capable of recognizing important features in the field, however lower-performing students fail to systematically test multiple interpretations of their data as reflected in poorly planned traverses across the examination field area. Specific track sequences, especially those involving reoccupation of locations, show particular difficulties in aspects of problem solving that are reflected in low quality interpretations on finished maps. Our study offers new tools and an independent approach to gauging student skills in geologic field problem solving.

Only 40% of geoscience undergraduate degrees are conferred on women. Little research has examined why more men tend to pursue and persist in geology degrees compared to women. We examined the reasons why undergraduate geology students chose to major in geology, with a particular emphasis on women. We collected data from 391 undergraduate students (46.4% women) enrolled in six geology departments at public, four-year institutions across the United States. Students reported six reasons they were attracted to geology: interest, career opportunities, liking the outdoors, liking the department, being encouraged by someone, and other. Interest was the most frequent reason female and male students reported for being attracted to geology. After interest, liking the geology department (including liking classes, faculty, and the department overall) was the next most frequent reason female students reported for selecting a geology major. It was the second to least frequent reason for male students. Both female and male students in departments graduating a higher percentage of women more frequently reported liking the department as a reason for being attracted to geology than did students in departments graduating lower percentages of women. Geology departments have the potential to impact the recruitment and retention of students, particularly women, into their programs. Future research is needed to identify the specific department practices that attract female students and provide a more welcoming climate to students.

Understanding how geologists conduct fieldwork through analysis of problem solving has significant potential impact on field instruction methods within geology and other science fields. Recent work has highlighted many aspects of fieldwork, but the problem solving behaviors displayed by geologists during fieldwork and the associated cognitive processes remain poorly understood. We present research showing how geology students initiate and develop geologic models as part of the problem solving process. We qualitatively analyzed field notes and interview data from 36 undergraduate geoscientists engaged in field exams during a 6-week advanced field camp. Eight cognitive approaches grouped in two broad categories emerged from the data that show how students develop geologic models. Students employ both single and multiple model approaches with varying degrees of success and frequency. The success of any given approach appears to be dependent on the level of students' geologic situation awareness. The development of multiple geologic models leads to a higher rate of success in general, because of the inherent flexibility to accommodate newly collected data. Instructors should continue to teach a multiple model approach until students have the proper geologic skills to ensure a high level of situation awareness and exhibit expert characteristics in the field. Furthermore, students should be instructed to eliminate weaker models as they progress throughout each mapping assignment.

One afternoon while perusing the monthly book club catalog, I ran across the latest and unfortunately last work published by Carl Sagan during his lifetime, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Intrigued by the title (and the author), I ordered a copy. Carl Sagan was definitely the most outspoken public champion of science and the objective study of nature in recent years, and this book explicitly addresses what Sagan perceives to be a great increasing threat to rational thought in American culture today.After reading the book cover to cover and recommending it to many of my academic colleagues, a friend of mine who studies Native American history and oral tradition encountered a review of the work in this journal by Steve Pavlik, which she thought I might enjoy reading. As it turns out, I do like and appreciate Pavlik’s review, but at the same time I find there to be a few points made in the paper which reflect perhaps a misunderstanding of the scientific process, scientific knowledge, scientific goals, and the personal attitudes and beliefs of scientists in general. It is these misunderstandings that I would like to discuss in this essay, both in the context of Sagan’s book and with an eye to the attitudes of many of today’s practicing scientists.

The purpose of this study is to propose a framework drawing on theoretical and empirical science education research that explains the common prominent field-based components of the handful of persistent and successful Earth science education programs designed for indigenous communities in North America. These programs are primarily designed for adult learners, either in a postsecondary or in a technical education setting and all include active collaboration between local indigenous communities and geoscientists from nearby universities. Successful Earth science curricula for indigenous learners share in common an explicit emphasis on outdoor education, a place and problem-based structure, and the explicit inclusion of traditional indigenous knowledge in the instruction. Programs sharing this basic design have proven successful and popular for a wide range of indigenous cultures across North America. We present an analysis of common field-based elements to yield insight into indigenous Earth science education. We provide an explanation for the success of this design based in research on field-based learning, Native American learning styles research, and theoretical and empirical research into the nature and structure of indigenous knowledge. We also provide future research directions that can test and further refine our understanding of best practices in indigenous Earth science education.

Points out that constructivist approach to science education is recognized as a valuable approach for building deep student understanding of scientific content and inquiry. Introduces a constructivist approach in two teacher training courses in the Spring 2000 semester and assessed their resulting content knowledge with examination-based assessment. Includes 17 references. (Author/YDS)

The full extent of gender discrimination in university settings remains uncertain. More research is needed to understand the scope of gender discrimination experiences in universities and to develop effective prevention approaches. However, Title IX and Institutional Review Board policies may hinder researchers' abilities to study gender discrimination in university settings. In this paper, we describe our experience working with the Institutional Review Board and Title IX offices to obtain approval for researching gender discrimination in university settings. We provide recommendations for how universities can enable gender discrimination research and follow Title IX policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A technique for reducing the vibration and noise from marine propulsors is examined theoretically and demonstrated experimentally. A single layer of elastomer is incorporated into a rotor to form a rotating vibration isolation mount. The mount isolates the rotor hub and shaft from the unsteady forces generated on the blades due to their interaction with circumferentially non-uniform, time-averaged inflow and turbulence. This results in reduced vibration and noise. Nonrotating isolated rotor transmissibility is well predicted with a simple lumped parameter rotor model for frequencies below the first bending mode of the blades. Tests performed under operational (i.e., rotating) conditions have shown that rotor isolation provides a reduction of up to 15 dB in transmissibility compared to an identical rotor without isolation. [DOI: 10.1115/1.1569948]

Women continue to remain underrepresented in geoscience degree attainment. Several disciplines (specifically geology) require participation in 'field experiences' in which students and faculty engage for weeks in a remote location to study geologic processes. Although any student is welcome to participate, studies find evidence of these outdoor spaces embodying a masculine domain. In this exploratory study, we examine the exclusive and inclusive gendered discourses used by 15 faculty and 36 students in the US that describe their perception of women doing geology fieldwork. Using a STEMinism framework, we analyse the exclusive and inclusive gendered discourse as it falls into three categories: natural/essentialized differences, individual preferences, and socialization. Our findings reveal the persistence of an exclusive gendered discourse, yet also indicate that gendered assumptions are being challenged through an inclusive discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis is presented on creating culturally sensitive instruction programs for geosciences, using New Mexico's Dine College as an example. The curriculum, guided by Dine elders and scholars, draws on traditional, indigenous practices and uses Dine models of learning and teaching.

We examined the presence of sexist experiences encountered by female undergraduate students across six geology departments in the United States. Two departments graduated a high percentage of female students compared to the national average (high sites), two departments had a moderate percentage (medium sites), and two had a low percentage (low sites). Over 50% of all participants reported encountering sexism. Hostile sexism was the most frequently reported type of sexism, subtle stereotype sexism the second most frequently reported, and subtle benevolent sexism the least frequently reported. Low and medium sites had a higher percentage of participants reporting sexism than at high sites. Most of the hostile experiences were reported at low and medium sites, and nearly 50% of participants at those site types reported sexist experiences, suggesting that there may be a more pervasive hostile social climate in low and medium sites. These findings suggest that sexism may be common within the six geology departments and particularly at low and medium sites. We speculate that hostile sexism may serve as a barrier for recruitment and retention of women in low and medium sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]