103-4 The ADVANCEing FieldSafety Program: Creating safe and welcoming field learning environments

Session: Balancing Tradition and Innovation: Evolving Geoscience Curricula for a Changing World (Posters)

Poster Booth No.: 4

Presenting Author:

Emily Ward

Authors:

Ward, Emily M. Geraghty¹, Gold, Anne U.², Dryák-Vallies, Mariama³, Hill, Alice Francis⁴, Schneider, Blair Benson⁵, Marin-Spiotta, Erika⁶, Hastings, Meredith⁷, Mattheis, Allison⁸, Jacquemart, Mylene⁹, Tiampo, Kristy French¹⁰, Dawson, Matthew¹¹

(1) CIRES Center for Education, Engagement and Evaluation, University of Colorado Boulder, Helena, MT, USA, (2) CIRES-University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA, (3) Polar Science Early Career Community Office, Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA, (4) National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), Nelson, New Zealand, (5) Kansas Geological Survey, Lawrence, KS, USA, (6) Department of Geography, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA, (7) Institute at Brown for Environment and Society and Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA, (8) California State University Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA, (9) ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, (10) University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA, (11) CIRES Center for Education, Engagement and Evaluation, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA,

Abstract:

Geoscience fieldwork is a fundamental and formative experience for educating undergraduate and graduate students alike and is valuable for preparing these students for the scientific workforce.  That said, fieldwork can be an intense learning experience, logistically challenging, and present significant risks to the safety and well-being of field team members.  Remote and harsh environments are not only physically demanding but also socially complex, where issues of identity-based harassment, discrimination, and exclusion can create barriers to participation and retention in the discipline, particularly for individuals from historically marginalized groups. The cumulative impact of these negative experiences can have harmful personal and professional consequences, deter students from pursuing geoscience careers, and impede efforts to broaden participation in the discipline.The need to address personal safety from identity-based harassment and other exclusionary behaviors during field research and training is growing more urgent to ensure welcoming, supportive and productive field experiences. To address these challenges, the ADVANCEing FieldSafety program was designed as a free and accessible online training suite to prepare field teams with the skills to implement practices for safer and more inclusive field experiences. The program combines a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) hosted on Coursera, a resource hub, and structured individual or team reflection workshop sessions. The course draws on an intersectional framework that recognizes how structural barriers and power dynamics affect people’s experiences in the field and provides resources for improving team culture and personal safety. The training was designed to be accessible for all field team roles, from students who are new to fieldwork to seasoned team leaders. 

This presentation will provide an overview of the ADVANCEing FieldSafety program, share program evaluation results, and discuss the research being used to measure the program’s effectiveness.  We will also provide suggestions for how the program can be used in educational and workforce development contexts in particular. 

(**ADVANCEing FieldSafety is a collaboration between the University of Colorado-Boulder’s (UC) FieldSafe project and ADVANCEGeo Partnership that leveraged UC’s field safety training and ADVANCEGeo’s workplace climate training.) 

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

© Copyright 2025 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved.