Reaching Out to Communities and Kids
with Science in San Francisco (SF-ROCKS), a program at San Francisco
State University, aims to connect urban youth with earth, environmental
and atmospheric sciences through hands on investigations with San Francisco
State University Geoscience faculty and curriculum development for the 9th
grade science classroom. It is the goal of SF-ROCKS that through these efforts,
a greater diversity of students will enter college in the earth
and environmental sciences. Started in 2001 through a National Science Foundation "Opportunities to Enhance Diversity in the Geosciences" program grant, SF-ROCKS reaches out to high school students in the southeast corridor of San Francisco - a region of San Francisco known for its long history of environmental injustice. The original focus was to introduce the geosciences to high school classrooms through local watershed investigations -- coupling the human history of industrialization in the region with the impact on the environment was the strategy to impassion urban young people into environmentalism through a scientific perspective. Introducing young people to earth processes and environmental investigations imparts appreciation and stewardship toward the environment as well as a perspective on environmental injustice.
SF-ROCKS has three main programming components to engage students into the earth sciences:
SUMMER RESEARCH INSTITUTE
Each
summer students from classrooms using SF-ROCKS curriculum
are chosen to participate in a 2-3 week summer research institute.
The institute begins with activities designed to introduce the
scientific method, scientific inquiry, and data collection using
a variety of techniques. Most of the research projects are field-based
and provide students with opportunities to review and explore
earth and environmental science topics they were exposed to through
the SF-ROCKS lesson plans in their 9th grade science courses.
Each group is led by an SFSU Geosciences Department faculty or
graduate student who selects a locally relevant research topic.
The culmination of the research projects for the high school
students is then presented in a scientific poster format at the
American Geophysical Union conference as part of a special high
school science session: "Bright STARS" (Students Training as
Research Scientists).
PARTNERSHIP WITH SAN FRANCISCO UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT
A core component of SF-ROCKS is a series of 15 lesson plans (available
via the world wide web), tied to California's state science standards,
that encourage teachers to supplement their existing 9th-grade interdisciplinary
science course curriculum with the educational materials and activities
that we have developed. By focusing on the unique watershed environments
that surround their school, students learn how earth science concepts
apply to their own neighborhood. Lesson plans include elements such as
constructing watershed and topographic models, chemical components such
as pH, and investigating the hydrogeology of watersheds as well as the
meteorology of the Bay Area.
NATIONAL PARKS INSTRUCTIONAL TOUR
New
last year, SF-ROCKS takes a subset of Summer Institute Students on a
tour of National Parks in the western United States. Students have the
opportunity, for the first time in their lives to camp, backpack, appreciate
nature, and see the stars. The program is modeled after a long standing
project at the University of New Orleans and
SF-ROCKS is now collaborating to bring together students from both regions
of the country in the field to view geology and earth processes.