Prior Work - About SAGE 2YC

Strong undergraduate geoscience education is dependent on effective programs at two-year colleges (2YCs). 2YCs play an important role in producing earth-science literate citizens, developing a competent and creative geoscience workforce, teaching science to pre-service K-12 teachers, and providing a foundation for broadening participation in the geosciences. At the same time, 2YC faculty face substantial challenges – limited resources for travel, isolation, and few opportunities for geoscience professional development specific for their setting. By engaging 2YC geoscience faculty in professional development, the SAGE 2YC project disseminates advances in STEM education to improve teaching, support students in geoscience technical training, and help prepare geoscience majors and pre-service teachers for college transfer. Online resources on this website are an important resource for both 2YC faculty and the broader geoscience community. With the great diversity of the 2YC students, this project helps broaden the participation of underrepresented minorities in the geosciences by increasing their involvement in 2YC programs and by preparing them for enrollment in four-year institutions or for the geotechnican workforce.

To help meet the needs described above, the SAGE 2YC project engaged 2YC geoscience faculty in a targeted professional development program. This program focused on sharing successful strategies for teaching students with a range of abilities, experiences, and goals, and for preparing 2YC students for the geoscience workforce.

SAGE 2YC offered a variety of professional development workshops to meet the needs of 2YC geoscience faculty.

• two national workshops - one on effective strategies for teaching all students and the other on workforce development through geoscience education at 2YCs
• a website of 2YC geoscience resources
• three types of dissemination workshops - professional meetings, regional workshops, and local workshops
• a leadership development program for 2YC geoscience faculty

The SAGE 2YC project sought to develop effective models of professional development for full-time and adjunct 2YC geoscience faculty, establish networks of 2YC and 4YC faculty and administrators focused on 2YC education, and build leadership within the 2YC geoscience community. Furthermore, the project synthesized resources to address challenges in 2YC geoscience education. The national and dissemination workshops enabled 2YC faculty to discuss issues, challenges, and opportunities, to share effective strategies and examples, to meet new colleagues, to prepare action plans to improve curriculum and instruction, and to develop sustainable professional communities.

Additional Information

Information about this project can be obtained from the following project personnel:

Heather Macdonald, rhmacd@wm.edu, College of William and Mary
Eric Baer, ebaer@highline.edu, Highline Community College
Robert (Bob) Blodgett, rblodget@austincc.edu, Austin Community College
Jan Hodder, jhodder@uoregon.edu, University of Oregon

The SAGE 2YC project was guided by an Advisory Committee of experienced science educators.