Collaborative research: conference: national association of geoscience teachers (nagt) early career geoscience faculty workshop

The National Science Foundation Division of Earth Sciences awarded Central Washington University $294,874 on April 15, 2026, under the Geosciences program to support the National Association of Geoscience Teachers' Early Career Geoscience Faculty Workshop.

The award funds a five-day annual workshop that brings early-career geoscience faculty together to integrate evidence-based teaching, research, and service practices into their careers, with experienced facilitators delivering discipline-specific instruction in atmospheric, ocean, and solid earth sciences. The program includes follow-on professional development activities to extend participant engagement and build a sustained community of practice. The workshop will continue over a three-year period through March 31, 2029, with updated sessions reflecting current evidence-based practices and multi-year reunion sessions for prior participants. Central Washington University administers the workshop from Ellensburg, Washington. The award supports activities that have trained more than 1,200 early-career faculty historically, with participants reporting increased confidence in academic career success and finding the discipline-specific content practical to implement in their own teaching and research environments.

Abstract

This award will support an annual workshop organized by the national association of geosciences teachers (nagt) to bring new geoscience faculty together for the early career geoscience faculty workshop. During the five-day workshop, experienced facilitators will help participants integrate evidence-based teaching, research and service practices into their careers. After the workshop, nagt will offer follow-on activities to continue professional development. The workshop will impact early career faculty, their students and the geoscience workforce by developing well-prepared teachers and mentors, supporting student success and producing a strong workforce for the future. The workshop for early career geoscience faculty: teaching, research, and managing your career is a long-running program with a successful track record of providing high-impact support for more than 1200 early career faculty in the atmospheric, ocean, and solid earth sciences. Past participants report that the discipline-specific nature of the workshop make the practices easy to adopt. The majority of participants report that their confidence to succeed in their academic careers increased somewhat or dramatically as a result of their participation. Given the prior success of the workshop and the ongoing need for support of early career faculty, nagt will continue to offer the early career workshop for geoscience faculty over the next three years. Workshop sessions will be updated to reflect current evidenced-based practices and better integrate the concepts into the work and responsibilities of early career faculty. In addition, to extend the support and community offered by the workshop, follow-on sessions will bring together participants from the three previous years to further expand and strengthen the community of practice. Through evaluations, reflections, and interviews, the team will determine the impact of the workshop and follow-on activities on participants, advancing knowledge on how in-person disciplinary professional development combined with follow-on virtual professional development can strengthen a community of practice for early career faculty. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.- subawards are not planned for this award.