The American Geosciences Institute (AGI) decided to create the National Geoscience Student Exit Survey in order to identify the initial pathways into the workforce for these graduating students, as well as assess their preparedness for entering the workforce upon graduation.

Targeted recruitment and retention efforts for the geosciences have become increasingly important with the growing concerns about program visibility on campuses, and given that geoscience degree production remains low relative to the demand for new geoscience graduates. Furthermore, understanding the career trajectories of geoscience degree recipients is essential for proper occupational placement. A theoretical framework was developed by Houlton (2010) to focus recruitment and retention efforts.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects an overall 19 percent increase in all geoscience-related jobs between 2006 and 2016, which is 9 percent faster than the growth rate for all U.S. occupations. Since 1995, the number of geoscience graduate degrees conferred has averaged approximately 854 per year. As such, current and projected trends indicate that there are not enough geoscientists to meet existing and future demands for professionals in geoscience-employing industries.

In the year 2000, the American Geological Institute (AGI) began developing its EarthInquiry activity series. Since that time, seven full-length activities have been released. Each EarthInquiry activity enables introductory college students to interact with real-time and archived geoscience data. EarthInquiry addresses some of the most commonly discussed topics in introductory geoscience course work. Each activity has its own workbook, printed by W.H. Freeman and Company that contains a code, allowing students access to the EarthInquiry web site.

Using local case studies to learn about earth processes increases the relevance of science instruction. Students are encouraged to think about how geological processes affect their lives and experiences. Today, with many global data sets available on-line, instructors have unprecedented opportunities to bring local data into the classroom. However, while the resources are available, using on-line data presents a particular set of challenges. Access and entry to web sites frequently change and data format can be unpredictable.

The educational implications of technological developments in data delivery, coupled with new insights into the dynamics of the Earth system, are having a profound influence on geoscience instruction. The geoscience education community is working to find effective ways to provide students with access to first-rate instructional activities for enhanced discipline understanding and competence in using real scientific data. Studies reveal that instructional utilization of Web-based materials present unique challenges.

To assess the relationship and connection between graduate student outcomes and the structural components of various geoscience graduate programs it is necessary to collect a parameterized description of the structure and nature of all graduate geoscience programs in the country. While most undergraduate geoscience programs have a common structure and curriculum, the fundamental structure of programs at the graduate level can vary greatly, ranging from traditional thesis and dissertation driven research programs to cohort-based, interdisciplinary, and interdepartmental programs.

In an effort to support the NSF-funded project, Universal Skills for Geoscience Graduate Student Success in the Workforce, an analysis of all the geoscience graduate programs has been conducted in order to identify and categorize the defining programmatic elements with the goal of connecting these elements with student outcomes and student success after graduation.