Collaborative Research: Early Career Geoscience Faculty Development Workshop: A partnership between NAGT and NSF

Early career science faculty commonly face significant challenges to establish themselves in a new academic environment, prepare new courses, and begin new research. Providing professional development and networking opportunities can help new science faculty establish the framework for a successful career, which in turn can help to improve undergraduate education and strengthen scientific research and scholarship. The workshops supported by this grant are a continuation of a well-established professional development series designed to help early career faculty flourish in the primary duties of their work, teaching, research, and mentoring. Through a partnership with the National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT), a team of experienced faculty leaders in Earth, atmospheric, marine, and planetary sciences will host three annual workshops at the University of Maryland for approximately seventy-five early career faculty each summer. At each workshop, early career faculty will learn about best practices in teaching, consider successful strategies for maintaining an active research and scholarly practice, and become equipped with resources and tools needed to establish a successful career. The workshop series will emphasize the role of faculty in broadening participation and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity in science.

Each workshop will be nationally advertised to invite applicants from all colleges and universities where early career faculty are tasked with teaching, research, and mentoring. The project will provide support for faculty to attend the workshop, especially faculty from two-year colleges. During workshop sessions, the leadership team will model effective pedagogical practices such as active learning techniques, small and large group discussions, problem-solving tasks, and scheduled time for participants to reflect and develop their own action plans. Leaders engage the participants through these sessions along with one-on-one conversations, discipline-specific sessions, and by providing feedback on teaching and research plans. Workshop activities will be evaluated annually and will be modified according to the needs and interests of each cohort of early career faculty. The project leaders will partner with NAGT to produce training curriculum for workshop leaders in methods of promoting diversity, equity, and inclusivity in science through teaching, research, and mentoring. These methods will be infused in workshop sessions and participants will develop personal strategic plans for improving diversity, equity, and inclusivity in science at their home institutions.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.