This quantitative study explores the differences between six geosciences departments that are successful or less successful in the retention and graduation of female students. 

This article presents an assessment of a field camp experience that focuses on a more relevant curriculum for the students being served today. These efforts are being made to impact the declining numbers of students interested in geoscience majors. 

Geoscience department websites are a public representation of the department and discipline. This exploratory study investigated the characteristics and culture communicated about geoscience depart- ments through their website photographs. Outdoor settings dominated in the website photographs. This may give the impression that geoscientists spend most of their time outdoors. Additionally, the outdoors may represent the most appealing aspect of geoscience work. Most people in the photographs were men.

Mentoring relationships are crucial in the development of student scientists. The purpose of this study was to identify the role of mentors in supporting career satisfaction among students in Earth System Sciences (ESS). Attendees of a national conference for Earth Sciences completed an anonymous survey with questions regarding experiences with an academic mentor, a sense of belonging in the community, and career satisfaction.

A lack of qualified teachers and low enrollment in the geosciences exist at both secondary and tertiary levels in the United States. Consequently, it is unlikely that students will be able to achieve scientific literacy without an increase in both of these populations. To address these problems, we pose research questions, highlight sociocultural theories, and provide examples of other science education research as possible avenues by which to explore these related problems.

Meeting the future demand for a qualified geoscience workforce will require efforts to increase recruitment, retention, and graduation of an increasingly diverse student body. Doing this successfully requires renewed attention to the needs and characteristics of underrepresented students, which include ethnic and cultural minorities, women, and students with disabilities. We synthesize the current literature on successful science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) diversity programs and programs in the geosciences specifically through the lens of educational macrosystems.

Geoscience faces dual recruiting challenges: a pending workforce shortage and a lack of diversity. Already suffering from low visibility, geoscience does not resemble the makeup of the general population in terms of either race/ethnicity or gender and is among the least diverse of all science, technology, engineering, and math fields in the U.S. Many studies discuss recruiting and diversity issues in science and math, but only a small number consider—and address quantitatively—barriers in geoscience.

This study examines discrepancies between geoscience career knowledge and biology career knowledge among Mississippi science teachers. Principals and in-service teachers were also surveyed about their perception of geoscience careers and majors. Scores were higher for knowledge of what biologists do (at work) than about what geoscientists do. Career knowledge was enhanced by race, where African American teachers perceived higher biology career knowledge and lower geoscience career knowledge than other races; however, the difference was not significant.

AGI estimates that 275,000 physical geology text books are sold in the United States per year. We selected 15 texts from nine different publishers. Data was collected from photos with scientists. Gender data was divided into male, female, and unknown. We noted if the individual was Caucasian, African-American, Asian, Latino, or unknown. Of the 307 geologists in the figures, 214 are male (69.7%), 61 are female (19.9%), and 32 are of undeterminable gender (10.4%). Out of 214 males, 168 are Caucasian (78.5%), 9 are racially diverse (4.2%), and 37 are unknown (17.3%).

Data available from the National Science Foundation Division of Science Resources Statistics demonstrate that since 1966 fewer bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. degrees have been awarded in the geosciences than in any other STEM field. Data spanning the time period from 1995-2001 indicate that the percentage of bachelor's and master's degrees awarded to members of racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in STEM fields was lower in the geosciences than in other STEM fields. The percentage of Ph.D.