21st CENTURY GEOSCIENCE EDUCATION:
CAN WE MEET THE CHALLENGES?
Margaret LeinenAssistant Director for Geosciences
National Science Foundation
4201 Wilson Blvd
Arlington, VA 22230
The coming decades will present new challenges and new opportunities to the geosciences. Several current trends will test our ability to educate the next generation of geoscientists. For example, many of the problems we need to study require increasingly multidisciplinary approaches that question our current emphasis on sequentially more reductionist education for geoscientists. New concepts, such as the non-linear complexity of many geoscience systems, will require re-invigorated links with mathematicians, systems engineers, and specialists from other related fields. Demographic trends for the US as a whole and for higher education in particular suggest that we need to take a more vigorous approach to recruiting underrepresented groups to geosciences in order to assure the vitality of our field. Absent this approach we are denying geosciences the opportunity to benefit from the diverse resources that are available to it.
To meet these challenges, it is clear that we will need to invest more effort in improving geoscience education and broadening its appeal. At the same time we need to examine both educational and research environments to determine how they contribute to the present condition. Some techniques that NSF is exploring are designed to enhance the relationship between research and educational programs, take full advantage of the information technology revolution and partner in new ways with institutions with large underrepresented group student bodies such as community colleges. We will also need to make a commitment as individuals, as academic institutions, and as organizations to stimulate the interest of underrepresented groups in geoscience.
