Geoscience continues to make headway in Treasure Valley high schools, and that’s thanks to Dr. Dan Luna.
The assistant clinical professor is also the geosciences faculty liaison for the Boise State Concurrent Enrollment Program (CEP). He oversees high school instructors who teach Boise State’s Physical Geology (GEOL 101) class at participating high schools. He also provides study guides, assignments, lecture slides and other resources so instructors can effectively teach the class to high school students.
“I think of a concurrent enrollment instructor as an adjunct instructor,” Dr. Luna said. “A big part of my job is to be a nexus point for them: to share ideas and to facilitate distribution of materials that’s more suitable to a high school setting. But teachers have a lot of freedom to do what they think is effective. I teach to my strengths and I allow my teachers in concurrent enrollment to teach to their strengths as well.”
The high school instructors regularly meet with Dr. Luna to ensure the class matches the academic standards of Boise State and the university’s Department of Geosciences. This includes professional development workshops and annual visits to the high school classroom.
GEOL 101 is offered at Boise, Capital, Timberline and Vallivue High Schools. Students who pass the class earn both high school and college credit and receive a letter grade on an official Boise State transcript. Since Dr. Luna began his faculty liaison position in the fall of 2021, 306 high school students have completed GEOL 101. 164 of those students, or 53.6%, finished with an ‘A’ letter grade.
High school instructors and students have even taken field trips to the Boise State Department of Geosciences. Recent field trips have included a tour of the Environmental Research Building and a visit to Dr. Luna’s Physical Geology lecture.
“Boise State’s geosciences is, for the average person in Boise, not something that is well known,” Dr. Luna said. “But the average geoscientist around the world has heard of Boise State. Several exceptional labs, some of which are truly world renown. We do a lot of work across many different fields from climate to wildlife to hydrology to rocks.”
“I feel proud to be part of this department, and I think it’s awesome that we can connect with high school teachers who can feel more of a connection to this prestigious department.”
But for Dr. Luna, the Concurrent Enrollment Program offers more than just an opportunity to collaborate with instructors. It sheds light on an area of study not commonly found in high school curriculum.
“One of the biggest things is to elevate geosciences for high school students and that it’s a big discipline with lots of careers,” Dr. Luna said. “The value of the career is something that we talk a lot about with our concurrent enrollment instructors. High school students in Idaho have a little bit of a leg up and extra incentive to go to college which is obviously very rewarding for someone’s career arc and life arc.”
Learn more about the Boise State Concurrent Enrollment Program and the Boise State Department of Geosciences.