Because of the historically low numbers of minorities in geoscience careers and college majors, an area of growing attention is how teacher professional development may be utilized to increase diversity in the geosciences (Pecore et al., 2007; Sedlock & Metzger, 2007). This paper examines teacher preferences for the timing, location and content of professional development, and how certain characteristics of professional development may contribute to or diminish the goal of increasing diversity in the geosciences. The results of two surveys of Mississippi science teachers indicate that African American teachers have distinct preferences for the location of the professional development as well as specific opinions about the outdoors. Despite the common practice of using field experiences to attract individuals to the geosciences, those African American science teachers who were surveyed more frequently chose laboratory experiences than outdoor or field-based professional development. Preferences of rural and urban/suburban participants were also compared. Urban/suburban participants expressed greater enjoyment in being outdoors than rural participants, but neither group was more likely to prefer professional development in the field or in a lab. Results of spatial clustering showed less preference for outdoor learning activities in the high-minority Mississippi Delta. (Contains 1 table and 5 figures.)