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Innovative teaching and a grant from the National Science Foundation will help the UA convince students from underrepresented groups that geology and engineering aren't as boring as they think.

By Pete Brown, UA College of Engineering
October 16, 2009

A new federally-funded program has been launched to increase the number of  underrepresented students seeking geoscience-related degrees at the University of Arizona.

The Saguaro program, for Southern Arizona Geosciences Union for Academics, Research and Outreach, officially launched on Sept. 1 with a $155,000 National Science Foundation grant.

Much of the NSF funding will go to attract and train minority undergraduate interns to conduct outreach at Tucson high schools and community colleges about geoscience careers and degrees.

To reach minority high school students, Saguaro has formed a partnership with the UA Mathematics, Engineering, Science Achievement, or MESA, program, which already has a well-developed network of program coordinators and school advisers.

Ben Sternberg, a professor of geological and geophysical engineering and electrical and computer engineering at the UA, is the project's principal investigator. Karl Flessa, head of the UA geosciences department, is the co-investigator.

Also, Phil Stokes, a geosciences doctoral student in mining and geological engineering, is the program coordinator and a prime mover behind Saguaro. From 2004 to 2007, Stokes was project coordinator for a successful similar program at the University of Buffalo while earning his master's degree in geological sciences.

In addition to outreach conducted by trained undergraduate interns, the Saguaro support network will also include geoscience faculty and graduate student mentors. Sternberg, who hopes to attract different departments into the program, said "The door is open to all."

"Departments that have anything to do with the ground and what's under it," Sternberg said.

He noted that Saguaro will seek involvement from departments involved in mining and geological engineering, agriculture, geosciences, soil, environment and hydrology.

Relatively few students from underrepresented groups graduate with undergraduate degrees in science, technology, engineering and math, the so-called STEM fields.

This is particularly true in the geosciences where less than 6 percent of bachelor's degrees go to African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians and Native Pacific Islanders, combined. The percentage is lower than the ratios of these groups both in higher education and in the general population, especially in Arizona with its large Hispanic and American Indian communities.

NSF is trying to redress this imbalance in geosciences through Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences, or OEDG. One part of increasing involvement, said Stokes, requires the tearing down of a few stereotypes and misconceptions.

"Kids often perceive geosciences as boring. Keeping kids in the classroom and giving them a rock identification kit is not the answer," Stokes said.

Instead, "fun" field trips will be a part of the Saguaro program. In the Buffalo OEDG program, Stokes took students fossil hunting at Niagara Falls, where they could see rock stratigraphy and quite literally see geology in action.

Reviewing his role in the OEDG program in Buffalo, NSF concluded that Stokes was in a good position to repeat that success in Arizona.

"His previous role in the Buffalo Geoscience Program would appear to make him highly qualified to undertake this task," the NSF stated in its analysis of Stokes' proposal. "The remainder of the project team has excellent credentials and relevant expertise that makes project success very likely."

In 2008, Stokes presented a paper on the proposed program at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America. That paper – "Spreading Roots: The Goals and Challenges of Establishing a Self-Sustaining Diversity Program in Southern Arizona" – won best student paper award in the geology and society division, and paved the way for the launch of Saguaro.