University earth science departments seeking to establish meaningful geoscience outreach programs often pursue large-scale, grant-funded programs. Although this type of outreach is highly successful, it is also extremely costly, and grant funding can be difficult to secure. Here, we present the Geoscience Education Outreach Program (GEOP), a…

Incorporating scientific uncertainty as part of science teaching means acknowledging that there may be incomplete or potentially limited scientific information when scientists draw conclusions. In the geosciences, scientists routinely make inferences about the Earth based on observations of the present, and test those observations against…

This first Early Implementers Initiative evaluation publication discusses one of the major shifts required by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), namely the shift to integrated instruction. The integration of science and English language arts (ELA) is the focus of the first main section, and the integration of the science disciplines…

Not only will young adults bear the brunt of the effects of climate change, but they are also the ones who will be required to take action-to mitigate and to adapt. Framing, as both a theory and an analytic method, has been used to understand how language in the media can affect the audience's concern and intention to act. The theory and the…

Young children express interest and understanding about science topics through everyday conversations with parents. Little is known about how much interest preschool-aged children show in astronomy. Using a diary report methodology, we asked parents in three communities in coastal California to keep track of conversations with their three to…

In this article, the authors describe their use of simultaneous observations of the 2016 transit of Mercury made from two widely separated locations on Earth to determine the distance to the Sun in a way different from that suggested in 1715 by Halley. Using an internet link, teachers and students can make a similar derivation at the 2019 transit…

Science education has experienced a significant transition over the last decade, catalyzed by a re-envisioning of what students should know and be able to do in science. That re-envisioning culminated in the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. The new standards set off a chain reaction of standards adoption and…

Although field and research experiences have been shown to help retain students in the geosciences, there is less known about how and why this is the case. We created a field-based research experience for five students with a range of backgrounds and prior experiences. We used mixed methods case study research to identify affect-related…

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…

As discipline-based astronomy education researchers become more interested in experimentally testing innovative teaching strategies to enhance learning in undergraduate introductory astronomy survey courses ("ASTRO 101"), scholars are placing increased attention toward better understanding factors impacting student gain scores on the…

This first analysis of aggregated data from the Kahoot! game-based player response system demonstrates that it can provide assessments of overall US student polar knowledge and identifies differences in polar knowledge across several states. A kahoot online quiz on polar topics recorded over 25,000 United States teacher-hosted classroom players…

Community colleges are a major entry point for many students to post-secondary education, particularly for minority, first-generation, low-income, and older students. A range of factors including transfer-readiness, curricular alignment, financial barriers, and transfer guidance, influence successful transfer between two-year colleges (2YCs) and…

This study showcases stories of minority students participating in the Geopaths research program at California State University, Bakersfield. The study examined faculty mentorship and research activity variables to understand their influence on STEM recruitment and retention. Using a narrative analysis approach, the researcher documented the…

Research conducted at scientifically significant sites produces an abundance of important and highly valuable data. Yet, though sites are logical points for coordinating the curation of these data, their unique needs have been under supported. Previous studies have shown that two principal stakeholder groups -- scientific researchers and local…