CAISE Broadening Participation in STEM Task Force

As part of the charge from its current National Science Foundation award, under the Advancing Informal STEM Learning program (no. DRL-1612739), CAISE is exploring opportunities for synergy among those who conduct and/or study informal STEM learning (ISE) and science communication and public engagement activities (SciComm).

In 2017, we convened a set of task forces to address three common challenges that both fields experience: (1) supporting and sustaining generative connections between practice and research, (2) building understanding of and capacity for evaluation and measurement, and (3) broadening participation of underrepresented groups in STEM and informal STEM education.

About the Task Force

This task force is charged with identifying critical issues, gaps, and possibilities within existing ISE and SciComm efforts to broaden participation in STEM. The goal is to produce tools and findings that can equip professionals with tools for strengthening relevant practice in order to better position the fields as essential partners in community or statewide efforts.

To date, the task force, with the help of 13 other contributors, has created a toolkit to support professional development. This toolkit can be used by organizational leaders and staff trainers to plan and lead reflective discussions about current practices, with an eye to developing goals, strategies, and priorities that can make your work more inclusive. Access the Broadening Perspectives on Broadening Participation toolkit here.

Task Force Leadership

• Cecilia Garibay, Principal, Garibay Group and co-Principal Investigator, CAISE
• Jamie Bell, Project Director and Principal Investigator, CAISE
• Angela Calabrese Barton, Professor, Department of Teacher Education, Michigan State University
• Bronwyn Bevan, former co-Principal Investigator, CAISE
• Michelle Choi, Project Manager, CAISE
• Melissa Ballard, Senior Community Manager, CAISE

Task Force Members

1. Raychelle Burks, Associate Professor of Analytical Chemistry, American University
2. Marc Lesser, Vice President of Research & Technology, National Academy Foundation (NAF)
3. Nancy Maryboy, Founding President & Executive Director, Indigenous Education Institute
4. Dale McCreedy, Vice President of Audience & Community Engagement, Discovery Center at Murfree Spring
5. Sunshine Menezes, Executive Director, Metcalf Institute for Marine & Environmental Reporting and Clinical Associate Professor of Environmental Communication, University of Rhode Island
6. Nichole Pinkard, Associate Professor and Director of the Office of STEM Educational Partnerships in the School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University
7. Christine Reich, Vice President of Exhibit Development and Conservation, Museum of Science, Boston
8. Bruno Takahashi, Assistant Professor of Environmental Journalism and Communication, Michigan State University
9. Bhaskar Upadhyay, Associate Professor of Science Education, University of Minnesota
10. Danielle Watt, Director, Office of Biomedical Graduate Research, Education and Training (BGREAT), University of Minnesota Medical School

Other Contributors

1. Olivia Ambrogio, Manager, Sharing Science, American Geophysical Union
2. Micaela Balzer, Director of Innovation and Learning, Impression 5 Science Center
3. Daniel Birmingham, Assistant Professor, School of Education, Colorado State University
4. Ann Hernandez, Education Leadership Program Manager, Space Center Houston
5. Jameela Jafri, Project Director, Project Exploration, Chicago, Illinois
6. Breanne Litts, Assistant Professor of Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences, Utah State University
7. Rabiah Mayas, Vice President of Education and Guest Experience, Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago
8. Ricarose Roque, Assistant Professor, Information Science, University of Colorado, Boulder
9. Tony Streit, Managing Project Director, EDC
10. Edna Tan, Associate Professor, Teacher Education and Higher Education, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
11. Eli Tucker-Raymond, Research Associate Professor, Boston University
12. Korie Twiggs, Community Manager, Industrial Designers Society of America
13. Jory Weintraub, Science Communication Program Director, Science and Society, Duke University

Staff

1. Michelle Choi, Task Force Project Manager, CAISE
2. Melissa Ballard, Communications and Community Manager, CAISE