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Concurrence of Top Rated Skills by Academics and Employers Figure 1. Highest priority skills and concepts from
the community survey. Responders included ~95
Access and Think Be Earth as a employers and ~345 academics. Participants were
integrate new critically quantitative complex, asked to rank individual skills from 1 (very impor-
information dynamic tant) to 5 (not important). The size of the circles
system corresponds to the percentage of respondents
who placed a skill in the top two categories (very
Have strong Solve 3D/4D Make Use important/important). The largest circle (Think
field skills problems inferences scientific Critically) had 95% very important/important
methods responses, and the smallest circle (Strong Field
Skills) had ~75% very important/important
Integrate Manage Communicate academics responses. Skills that received less than 75% very
diverse data uncertainty effectively concurrence important/important responses were not included
employers in the graph. The colors of the circles reflect simi-
larities and differences between academic and
employer responses. Gray centers show the per-
cent of concurrence between academics and
employers. Where the rims are blue, employers
gave the skill a slightly higher weight than academ-
ics, and where the rims are orange, academics
gave the skill a slightly higher weight than employ-
ers. A complete summary of the survey responses
can be found at http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/events/
files/HCWebinar_Sept2016_Summit-Sharon-
Mosher.pdf.

found at http://www.jsg.utexas.edu/events/ changes into practice throughout the geo- that vision. Sustained change in geoscience
files/Employers_Workshop_outcomes.pdf. science community. Most importantly, education will, however, require the persis-
faculty will need time, educational tent, coordinated efforts of administrators,
As workforce needs evolve, student resources, and financial support to pilot educators, students, employers, and profes-
learning must change. Educators at the and document new instructional approaches. sional societies. Nonetheless, the prize
summits and contributors to the commu- remains large: it is nothing less than the
nity survey agreed with employers that to What are the next steps? More than 90 opportunity to demonstrate that geoscience
prepare students for successful careers, institutions have now developed individual departments are an essential source of
geoscience curriculum should build around action plans for their geoscience depart- students to address a new generation of
skills, competencies, concepts, and learn- ments. In addition, the community survey workforce and societal issues.
ing outcomes rather than specific disci- remains open to anyone who wishes to
plinary content (Fig. 2). A number of participate: https://apps.jsg.utexas.edu/ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
geoscience departments have already mod- form/survey-future-of-undergraduate
ified their curriculum and developed -geoscience-education. Employer input The authors gratefully acknowledge contribu-
proven approaches for effecting change; would be particularly welcome. Feedback tions from members of the steering committee for
e.g., experiential learning, independent from the survey, results of the summits, the summits and workshops on undergraduate
research, problem solving and use of real workshop, institutional plans, and extensive education, including Joshua Villalobos, Jeff Ryan,
data in classes, integration of math and input from education conferences (e.g., David McConnell, Lisa D. White, Jacqueline
computational methods into geology Earth Educators Rendezvous) will be used Huntoon, Wendy Harrison, Kate Miller, Peter Lea,
courses, incorporation of intensive written to develop a formal Vision and Change and Tim Bralower. Funding was provided by
and oral communication, and implementa- document that lays out the shared commu- National Science Foundation grant EAR1347209.
tion of robust assessment tools. There will, nity vision for undergraduate geoscience
however, be challenges to putting these education and the actions needed to realize REFERENCES CITED

Developing Competencies, skills, and conceptual Martinsen, O.J., Talwani, M., Levander, R, Dengo,
understanding is more important than specific C., Barkhouse, B., Dunn, J.F., Link, C., Mosher,
S., Tatham, R., Orcutt, J., Paul, D., and Talley,
courses R., 2012, A U.S. human resource challenge for
Earth science education and energy exploration
Academics and exploitation: The Leading Edge, 30th
Anniversary Volume, v. 31, p. 714–716,
Employers doi:10.1190/tle31060714.1.

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% O’Connell, S., and Holmes, M.A., 2011, Obstacles
to the recruitment of minorities into the
yes no blank geosciences: A call to action: GSA Today, v. 21,
no. 6, p. 52–54, doi:10.1130/G105GW.1.
Figure 2. Results from the community survey supporting the major conclusion that devel-
oping competencies, skills, and conceptual understanding is more important than taking Singer, S.R., Nielsen, N.R., and Schweingruber,
specific courses. Among both academics and employers, at least 75%–80% of respon- H.A., editors, 2012, Discipline-based education
dents gave a positive answer to this question. research: Understanding and improving learning
in undergraduate science and engineering:
National Academies Press, 282 p.

MANUSCRIPT RECEIVED 2 APR. 2017
MANUSCRIPT ACCEPTED 20 APR. 2017

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