Program History and Success

The Traveling Workshops program began as part of the Building Strong Geoscience Departments project and transitioned to its current home at NAGT in 2014.

Where we've held workshops

We've held more than 80 workshops across the United States, at two-year colleges, primarily undergraduate institutions, and research-intensive universities. Several institutions have requested multiple workshops on different themes.

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Map showing where we've held Traveling Workshops from 2014 to 2024 (a workshop held in Ecuador is not included).

Provenance: Anne Egger, Central Washington University
Reuse: If you wish to use this item outside this site in ways that exceed fair use (see http://fairuse.stanford.edu/) you must seek permission from its creator.

Evaluation results 

We conduct evaluation at the end of each workshop and ask participants to rate their satisfaction with the workshop, the extent to which the workshop met the goals, and provide a space for comments. Over ten years, the average satisfaction rating is 8.9/10 across all workshop types. Many of the comments we receive focus on the benefits of facilitation, including:

Having attempted to steer strategic planning discussions and action planning in our department for a while, it was tremendously helpful to have skilled facilitators, knowledgeable about the issues we are facing, to guide us. 

The workshop provided the (very) necessary space for my dept to focus on future hires, curriculum change, and relevance within our institution. All of the dept faculty were able to agree on specific goals and actions related to these themes... which definitely feels like progress. 

This workshop was really helpful in facilitating a conversation among faculty which has been hard to have when facilitated by an internal faculty member.

[It] was very valuable to hear from folks who normally do not share their feelings in faculty department meeting settings.

Testimonials

We also receive feedback from workshop participants long after their workshop, including:

Our department benefited greatly from the NAGT Traveling Workshop program. Although we have two programs (Environmental Sciences and Geology), the workshop brought together faculty, including lecturers, from both programs to reassess our program goals and to visualize our opportunities to grow. Through various activities organized by the two expert facilitators, we were able to synthesize the similarities in our program goals, curriculum, and values in a way that wasn't possible through typical faculty or curriculum meetings. As a result, we were able to act as a unified department and agree upon three strategic priorities with specific action plans, timelines, and responsible parties for each goal: 1) updating introductory labs to make topics more relevant to students' lives, 2) implement more inclusive recruiting strategies, and 3) create more curricular opportunities that combine both programs.

Publications and presentations

Publications

• Egger, A. E., and W. Robinson (2024), Geoscience departments can "phone a friend" for support, Eos, 105, https://doi.org/10.1029/2024EO240266. Published on 21 June 2024.
• Egger, A. E. (2024), Where did NAGT's Traveling Workshops Program Come From?, In the Trenches, vol. 14. no. 2, pp. 2

Presentations

• Riihimaki, C., Archer, R., Bartley, J., Beane, R., Blockstein, D., Davis, E., Fortner, S., Gross, D., Rademacher, L., Shelito, C., Viskupic, K., 2021. Report on Unlearning Racism in Geoscience from the NAGT Traveling Workshop Program Pod, Earth Educators Rendezvous. (Online).
• Awalt, M., Blockstein, D., Doser, D., Egger, A., Macdonald, H., Manduca, C., Rhodes, D., and Riihimaki, C., 2019. Facilitating Departmental, Programmatic, and Curricular Change through Traveling Workshops, Transforming Institutions Conference, (Pittsburgh, PA).
• Awalt, M., Blockstein, D., Orr, C. H., Robinson, W. A., Mulkey, S., Riihimaki, C. A., & Rhodes, D., 2019. Strengthening Cross-Campus Programs to Enhance Interdisciplinary Environmental and Sustainability Education through Traveling Workshops, AGU Fall Meeting, (San Francisco, CA).
• Haveles, A., Awalt, M., MacDonald, R. H., Beane, R., Doser, D., Ebanks, S., Riihimaki, C., Villalobos, J., Weissmann, G. and Manduca, C., November 2018. Seeding a System of Broadening Participation in the Geosciences through Traveling Workshops GSA Annual Meeting (Indianapolis, IN).
• Iverson, E.A., Lee, S., Ormand, C.J., Feiss, P.G., Macdonald, H., Manduca, C.A., and Richardson, R.M., Dec. 5-9, 2011. Building Strong Geoscience Departments: Case Studies and Findings from Six Years of Programming, Abstract ED23A-0616. AGU 2011 Fall Meeting (San Francisco, CA).
• Ormand, C.J., Manduca, C.A., Macdonald, H., Bralower, T.J., Clemens-Knott, D., Doser, D.I., Feiss, P.G., Rhodes, D.D., Richardson, R.M., and Savina, M.E., Dec. 5-9, 2011. Building Strong Geoscience Departments Through the Visiting Workshop Program, Abstract ED42A-06, AGU 2011 Fall Meeting (San Francisco, CA).
• Ormand, C.J., Manduca, C.A., Macdonald, R.H., Feiss, G.P., Richardson, R.M., Lee, S., and Iverson, E., 2010. Impacts of the Building Strong Geoscience Departments Visiting Workshop Program, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 42. no. 5, pp. 531.