Press release:
Highline Community College has been awarded nearly $225,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation in support of geoscience education.

Highline has played a role in trying to create and organize a national community of geoscience faculty at community colleges and to increase enrollment of underrepresented students in geoscience programs.

“The grants support building a community of geoscience instructors at two-year colleges so we can share ideas, talk about challenges facing students and faculty and develop solutions to problems we have in common,” said Highline Geology instructor Eric Baer.

A grant for $192,684 will fund a professional development program where two-year college geoscience faculty share successful strategies for teaching students and preparing them for the geoscience workforce.

Highline’s partners include Austin Community College in Texas; University of Oregon in Eugene, Ore.; and College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

The second grant for $30,405 will help pay for 25 community college instructors to attend the national meeting of Geologic Society of America in Minneapolis in October 2011.

For more information about the National Science Foundation, visit www.nsf.gov.

Highline Community College was founded in 1961 as the first community college in King County. With approximately 18,900 students and 350,000 alumni, it is one of the state’s largest institutions of higher education. The college offers a wide range of academic transfer and professional-technical education programs, with day, evening and weekend classes. Alumni include former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, entrepreneur Junki Yoshida and Washington state poet laureate Sam Green.