15-6 Field Trips as Outreach: Catalysts for Confidence, Community, and Inclusion in the Geosciences

Session: Geoscience Outreach Efforts to Broaden Participation, Part I

Presenting Author:

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Abstract:

Field trips are often taken for granted in geoscience education, yet they are amongst the most powerful tools for attracting, engaging, and retaining students—particularly those historically excluded from the discipline. At San José State University (SJSU), we have leveraged field experiences through our Geology Outdoors course and NSF sponsored SJSU GEOPAths program to create two parallel and increasingly intersecting loops of outreach and engagement: One for undergraduates, and one for high school students and their teachers.

Geology Outdoors is a low-barrier, all-field-trip course designed as both a “try before you buy” experience for undergraduate non-majors and an introductory field skills course for geoscience majors. Students progress through the course learning regional geology and outdoor skills culminating in an overnight trip, often a first camping experience for most of the class. This course has also served as a recruitment tool into the GEOPAths program, which supports students through field-based learning, research opportunities, and guidance in navigating the hidden curriculum of academia. Students gain confidence to serve as trip leaders for local high school students by revisiting Geology Outdoors sites for pre-trip scouting sessions, and using immersive virtual reality field trips for remote pre-trip training. Within one or two semesters, students evolve from participants to confident leaders—guiding field trips, supporting additional outreach events, and mentoring others.

Our partnership with the San Jose, CA East Side Union High School District has mirrored this model. High school students and teachers participate in the aforementioned field trips led by GEOPAths students, and some high school participants have also returned to help lead future trips for their peers, thus transforming outreach into a loop that transforms participants into leaders. Following a two-week geoscience experience summer program for high school students hosted at SJSU, we saw 8 out of 10 high school participants return the following fall as assistant field trip leaders, helping to recruit the next cohort of summer program participants and possibly future SJSU geoscience majors

This model has fostered a culture of confidence, teaching-as-learning, and community within our department, fundamentally shifting our department’s undergraduate culture to one of inclusion, giving back, and moving forward with self-efficacy.  We have seen parallel personal growth in the high school summer participants as well.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-10363

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