26-6 Exploring how department websites market geoscience career opportunities to potential students

Session: Current Advances in Geoscience Education Research (Posters)

Presenting Author:

Authors:

Abstract:

Despite many efforts to attract and support students, the overall number of students enrolling in geoscience degree programs is decreasing in the U.S. and internationally, raising concerns about a future shortage of professional geoscientists. Geoscience majors and careers are not well known to students, and recruitment messages are often traditionally framed (e.g., lone white males in outdoor settings) or are negatively perceived by students (e.g., environmentally damaging fossil fuel or mineral extraction). Such messaging may deter students from considering geoscience pathways. To identify effective strategies that attract more students to the geosciences, it is important to evaluate the types of career information that degree-granting departments currently use to recruit students.

Preliminary work analyzed a survey of 896 Northern California college and high school students and found that university department websites serve as a primary research tool when students explore potential majors. Based on their importance, the websites of geoscience departments at six California universities were reviewed using a public relations-based content analysis. All pages of the geoscience department websites were screen-captured between March 28 and 31, 2025, to document content at a single point in time. Image, text, and video analyses included 39 web pages from six departments. Image analysis identified 663 individuals in 275 images: 46% of the people were engaged in school-related activities, and 38% were working outdoors. Seventeen percent of images showed people using computers or other technology, while only 1% showed people operating heavy equipment.

Text content analysis used a rubric to assess the presence and depth of career-related information. Two of the six departments featured a web page dedicated to geoscience careers and two departments included career outlooks and annual salary estimates. Only one department highlighted California’s professional geology licensure, required for anyone offering professional geological services that affect public or environmental health and safety in California.

Overall, this analysis suggests that few departments provide thorough geoscience career information, and materials fail to reflect the discipline’s modern scope and relevance. Available information generally lacks specific details about geoscience careers, employment outlooks, work environments, or the tools and instrumentation important to the diverse career options available to modern geoscientists.

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

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