By the year 2022 there will be a projected shortfall of ~135,000 geoscientists in the workforce. One large hurdle to increasing the number of geoscientists is exposure. Fewer than 30% of high school graduates take a high school geoscience course. To increase the visibility of the field, we established a geoscience bridge program to give high school seniors and recent graduates a taste of what a geoscientist does and the types of careers available. This is achieved through a FREE discovery-based field course where we spend 9 days camping in Wyoming, Nebraska and South Dakota, and 2 days at UNL. The trip offers a unique opportunity to delve into many different aspects of geology from exploring sedimentary environments associated with the Platte river system to looking at metamorphic rocks and glacial deposits in the Medicine Bow Mountains. A detour through the Black Hills provides a look into past volcanic activity and cave formation, while a stop at Ashfall Fossil Beds gives a glimpse into past life. Overall, this experience is designed to expose HS students to the Earth and its history, and to provide an engaging introductory ˜BRIDGE" into college life and studies with a cohort of other learners.
We will also discuss a geoscience field course for pre-service and in-service educators. The participants will emerse themselves in an inquiry based field experience where the principles of 3 Dimensional Learning are modelled and discussed.