FOG awardees Danielle Harlow, Laura Romo, and Diana Arya
Three of the four UC Santa Barbara 2017 Faculty Outreach Grants have been awarded to faculty members from the Gevirtz School’s Department of Education, for a total of over $33,500. UCSB’s Faculty Outreach Grants (FOG) Program supports faculty led initiatives designed to improve the quality of academic preparation and educational strategies for participating students, to significantly impact the achievement of students in low-performing schools and reduce the educational achievement gap. Grants for projects in our region are made annually and funding is provided by the Office of the Chancellor.
The three projects are “Creating an Augmented-Reality Sandbox for Teaching and Learning about Earth Surfaces (CASTLES),” which is led by a PI team of Jennifer King, Professor in the Department of Geography, Kelly Caylor, Director of the Earth Research Institute, the Gevirtz School’s Danielle Harlow, and Alan Murray, Professor in the Department of Geography; “Motivating Latina High School Students to Pursue and Persist in STEM Majors: A Mentoring Program Led by UCSB Undergraduate Women,” which is led by PI Laura Romo of the Gevirtz School; and “the Curie-osity Project: A Community-Based Collaboration with Girls Inc. and UCSB,” which is led by PIs Diana Arya and Danielle Harlow from the Gevirtz School and Rick Benjamin, Director of Student Learning and Engagement Initiatives in the College of Letters and Science.
CASTLES will focus on exposing students of all ages to geographical sciences through a hands-on, low barrier, highly accessible, intuitive sandbox activity to explore processes at Earth’s surface.
The goal of Dr. Laura Romo’s project is to create a program that will enable high-ability-STEM Latina high school students to receive mentoring from UCSB undergraduate women who are STEM majors.
The Curie-osity Project aims to engage groups of young female students in research about women scientists and engineers at UCSB and have the students take part in hands-on, inquiry-based activities related to the work of the UCSB scientists.