• Through the collaboration between NASA IV&V Educator Resource Center and GLOBE Headquarters, the PI was able to develop and deliver an integrated geoscience course for Upward Bound students. Under-represented students (both minority and females) were involved in the active collection and analysis of environmental data which can serve to broaden the participation and interest of these under-represented populations.
• Through the collaboration of expert consults from a variety of environmental specialities, the PI was able to promote a multi-disciplinary integrated approach to geoscience instruction. This technique will be available for utilization by educators who utilize the curriculum resources developed during the course implementation.
• With the support of student assistants, lesson plans were created for each assignment, both in-class the GLOBE website activity.

Difficulties

• Program developers anticipated a full 6 weeks of contact with students in order to include most of the primary observation protocols of the GLOBE program. However, students were often called away from classes to participate in seemingly unscheduled extra-curricular field trips. Often times, the PI was not notified in advance of these program changes. This made implementation difficult and challenging to build instructional momentum.
• Students often finished the activities at different rates. This can often cause a disruption in the classroom environment. Therefore, the PI developed on-line investigative questions regarding the GLOBE website. See below.
• Classroom motivation is often discussed as a challenge since participation in informal educational enrichment programs is voluntary. Therefore, incentives were utilized to increase student interest and enthusiasm for course participation. See below.

Best Ideas

• Obtain a detailed and committed schedule of instructional days and hours from the informal education program such as Upward Bound. Their commitments to students often include a broad enrichment experience with less emphasis on formal instructional time. Therefore, they do not necessarily appreciate the need for notification when they change instructional hours.
• Develop on-line GLOBE website questions for students to investigate after they complete the assignment. Students will finish the activities at different times. Awareness and interest in the GLOBE website can then be coordinated during these times. For those students who could not finish these activities during regular class time, they were allowed to complete them on their own time. This fostered continued and sustained interest in the course.
• Motivation to participate was fostered through the chance to take the Advanced Environmental Inquiry which includes the following:
  • trip to Costa Rica;
  • technological learning with WV GLOBE podcasts via downloads and with portable MP3 players.

Deviations and Future Plans

Since the transfer of the IDGE award to the new institution, Marshall University, a new group of 16 students will be selected from the MU Upward Bound program to participate in an introductory Environmental Inquiry course during their 6 week summer instruction period. These low-income first-generation students are selected from Cabell, Wayne, and Mason counties.