The Broadening Experience for Scientific Training: Beginning Enhancement Track ("BEST-BET"), an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot project, draws upon the expertise of five research-intensive institutions that have developed innovative programing in career and professional development for doctoral and postdoctoral trainees in biomedical research. The goal of the project is to expand the scope and leverage the work so as to engage students earlier in their career exploration. Specifically, the project will target undergraduates who may not be aware of the multitude of career options available to them. These include opportunities in academia, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, science communication, science policy, and technology transfer/patent law. The effort will focus on undergraduates who come from populations generally underrepresented in STEM fields, including but not limited to ethnically, racially and socioeconomically underserved communities. The grant will support educational opportunities for students at minority-serving institutions and will assess the impact of providing new opportunities to this community. The critical contributions of a diverse and inclusive community are essential to progress in all STEM fields. By promoting diversity in education, this project aims to engage undergraduate students at a point in their professional development that could enable participation in a wide range of workforce opportunities so as to advance the progress of science and national health.
The focus of BEST BET will be to use a collective impact framework to connect the "BEST network" of institutions to partners engaged in undergraduate education of students from underrepresented communities who are interested in the life sciences. The underlying premise is that career exploration focused on opportunities that go beyond physician training will enable engagement of this community of learners in the life science workforce beyond the pre-med track and keep them engaged in degree completion. Multiple strategies will be used to attain the goals of BEST BET. They are organized in the context of two major objectives roughly divided into the scope of planned activities. The first objective focuses on "career exploration" and offers strategies to assist partner institutions to build career and skill development capacities. The second is grounded in an enhanced experience of BEST site visits whereby undergraduates will have the opportunity to envision life as a graduate student and beyond. These strategies will likely enhance persistence to complete the baccalaureate degree and move onto doctoral programs.
Physical science and engineering remain the least diverse of all STEM fields---with regard to women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities---across all levels of STEM education and training. SCI-STEPS is an NSF INCLUDES Design and Development Launch Pilot that will address this persistent challenge by developing a complete end-to-end pipeline (or system of pathways) from the beginning of college to the PhD, and then into the workforce. Many isolated efforts to broaden participation have shown promise, but they have not produced big enough impact. SCI-STEPS represents a concerted set of coordinated interventions---consciously facilitated, systemically linked, and purposefully disseminated. SCI-STEPS represents a broad regional network among major research universities, Historically Black Colleges and Universities, comprehensive universities, community colleges, national labs, and major scientific organizations. The goal of the network is to ensure that underrepresented individuals in the physical sciences and engineering can get from their starting point in STEM higher education---freshmen at 2-year or 4-year college---through the higher education pathways leading to an appropriate terminal degree and employment in the STEM workforce.
Women, underrepresented minorities, and persons with disabilities collectively represent the majority of college-age individuals entering higher education with an expressed interest in physical science and engineering. A growing body of research indicates that academic and social integration may be even more influential than academic abilities for retention of students. Thus, interventions aimed at stemming the losses of these individuals must ultimately be aimed at changing the system---including unwelcoming institutional climates, racial/ethnic/gender stereotyping, a lack of mentors with whom to identify, and evaluation methods that emphasize conformity over individual capabilities---rather than changing the individual. The SCI-STEPS pilot focuses effort on institutional readiness for implementation of best practice interventions at four key junctures: (i) college freshman to sophomore; (ii) undergraduate to graduate; (iii) PhD to postdoc; and (iv) postdoc to workforce.The pilot will proceed in three steps: (1) a planning phase, (2) development of an initial end-to-end pathways model with four Juncture Transition teams, and (3) scale-up of the SCI-STEPS "network of networks" with all initial partners. By addressing these objectives through a collective impact framework and embedded research, this pilot will demonstrate how best-practice interventions at each pathway juncture can be dovetailed and scaled up across a broad range of institutional types and across a large but distinct geographical area. Addressing these objectives will thus also serve to advance Broadening Participation efforts at a national scale, by suggesting the forms of institutional partnerships and best-practices that may inform other alliances in other STEM disciplines and/or different regional areas.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Keivan StassunNicole JosephKelly Holley-BockelmannWilliam RobinsonRoger Chalkley
This project is a Design and Development Launch Pilot (DDLP) of the NSF INCLUDES program. The goal of the project is to enhance the knowledge and applicability of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) for a broad cross-section of people living in the U.S,-Affiliated Pacific Islands. The focus will be on water resources, which is an extremely important topic for this region and equally relevant nationally. The project will engage local community groups and schools in water monitoring, sampling, and analysis, in order to promote the benefits of science education and careers among a population that is underrepresented in these areas. Moreover, the project will improve the capabilities of the island residents for making decisions about sustainable use and protection of these scarce resources. A functioning network will be established among the islands that will have a positive impact on the health and well-being of the residents.
This project will use water as a highly relevant topic in order to involve a wide range of individuals in both general STEM learning and the basic scientific principles as applied to water resources. Specific aspects include engaging K-12, higher education, informal educators and community members to manage water resources in a sustainable fashion that will reduce disaster risk. In addition, the project will empower local communities through water literacy to make better informed, evidence-based decisions that balance the needs of diverse stakeholder groups. The overarching goal is to further advance the inclusion of underrepresented learners in STEM fields. Benefits to society will accrue by: increasing STEM learning opportunities for ~6,500 students from underserved and underrepresented Indigenous Pacific Islanders that will enhance their eligibility for STEM careers; building community resiliency through a collective impact network to resolve emerging water crises; and fostering collaboration among different constituencies in remote communities to make better-informed decisions that reflect the needs and constraints of diverse interests.
The Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) program assists universities and colleges in diversifying the STEM workforce through their efforts at significantly increasing the numbers of students from historically underrepresented minority populations to successfully complete high quality degree programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The LSAMP Bridge to the Baccalaureate (B2B) funding opportunity provides support for historically underrepresented minority STEM students who begin their instruction at a community college with the intent to transfer into 4-year STEM degree programs in addition to other infrastructure support such as STEM faculty professional development. This project, Educational Network to GAin STEM Graduates and Enhance STEM Education (ENGAGE), broadens participation of underrepresented minority (URM) students and enhances diversity in STEM. Valencia College, on behalf of the Central Florida STEM Alliance (CFSA), seeks to significantly increase the number of URM STEM students transferring from CFSA two-year colleges, Valencia College, Lake-Sumter State College and Polk State College, to STEM baccalaureate degree programs at regional university partners, the Florida Institute of Technology, Florida Polytechnic University, University of Central Florida, University of Florida and University of South Florida.
ENGAGE creates a network between secondary education, community colleges, four-year institutions and graduate programs to offer viable pathways to STEM degree achievement. ENGAGE supports URM students' access and early exposure to STEM disciplines through comprehensive support services with linkages to university LSAMP partners including the Florida-Georgia LSAMP Bridges to the Doctorate program. ENGAGE advances research on effective practices in engaging URM students through the academic, social, and professional integration of STEM that aligns with the LSAMP model. ENGAGE informs the STEM community on institutional practices that impact recruitment, retention, and transfer-readiness strategies specific to URM STEM student success at two-year colleges. Through this LSAMP B2B partnership, ENGAGE seeks to achieve significant gains in the development of a diverse, globally-competitive workforce and create new STEM pathways for URM students leading to an increase of URM graduates with STEM baccalaureate and graduate degrees.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Kathleen PlinskeCory BlackwellReginal WebbEugene Jones
resourceprojectProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
The NSF INCLUDES program supports models, networks, partnerships and research to ensure the broadening participation in STEM of women, members of racial and ethnic groups that have been historically underrepresented, persons of low socio-economic status, and people with disabilities.
The Algebra Project, in partnership with the Young People's Project, will convene a conference on inclusion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) higher education in support of the National Science Foundation's Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (NSF INCLUDES) initiative. The conference will examine a critical question: What roles and structures are needed for a mini-backbone organization in order to scale a "bottom up" model of social change into an organized, full scale collective impact model? Additionally, the conference will develop participants' capacity to link action on the various design challenges, and backbone structures, to future actions that meet the needs of a potential Alliance on this Broadening Participation Challenge and others facing similar challenges.
Five pre-conference design teams will focus on key components to improve education of students from underrepresented and disadvantaged populations over a four-month period prior to the convening of the stakeholders in St. Louis, Missouri in 2017.
Community colleges play a vital role in educating undergraduate students. These higher education institutions educate nearly half of the nation's undergraduate students, particularly among low-income and first-generation students and students of color. Because of the rich diversity that currently exists at these institutional-types, there are immense opportunities to broadening participation throughout the engineering enterprise. To this end, the investigator outlines a joint collaboration with five community colleges, three school systems, two college career academies, and a state partner in Georgia - referred as the Georgia Science, Technology, and Engineering Partnerships for Success (GA STEPS) - to provide dual enrollment classes in career pathways for Georgia high school students in grades 9-12, thereby allowing secondary students to earn college credit. The Georgia STEPS program proposes to leverage mechatronics engineering as a means for broadening engineering participation for community colleges and underserved, underrepresented populations in 48 rural counties to increase engineering awareness, skills training and college and career readiness. The project builds on an existing collaboration that has developed successful engineering opportunities at the community college level, by including a wider regional network of rural Georgia counties and high schools. Further, this project has immense potential to transform engineering education and course-taking for students at the secondary and postsecondary level in Georgia and beyond. It has potential great potential to be scaled and replicated at other placed around the United States.
The project's intellectual merit and innovation is that it leverages a successful mechatronics engineering curriculum that supports engineering skills that support local industry as well as supporting innovations in the mechatronics field. The project includes a collective impact framework, involving various stakeholders and aligning quantitative and qualitative metrics and measurable objectives. The broader impacts of this project is that it increases the engineering knowledge and skills of underserved, underrepresented students that are enrolled in community colleges. Also, the impact to rural communities in Georgia support the fact that this project would meet broader groups that can be positively impacted by this type of collaborative. The ability to provide different parts of this engineering discipline across broad audiences in community colleges - that support underrepresented groups understanding of mechatronics engineering - is broadly useful to the field of engineering.
Worldwide, four million people participate in geocaching--a game of discovering hidden treasures with GPS-enabled devices (including smart phones). Geocachers span all ages and tend to be interested in technology and the outdoors. To share information about the Montana Climate Assessment (MCA), an NSF-funded scientific report, Montana State University created a custom trackable geocaching coin featuring the MCA Website and logo. We then recruited volunteers to hide one coin in each of Montana’s 56 counties. Volunteer geocachers enthusiastically adopted all 56 counties, wrote blogs and social media posts about the coins, and engaged local Scout troops and schools. Other geocachers then found and circulated the coins while learning about Montana’s climate. One coin has traveled nearly 4,000 miles; several have visited other states and Canada. 95% of the volunteers said the project made them feel more connected to university research, and they told an average of seven other people about the project. Nearly all of the participants were unfamiliar with the Montana Climate Assessment prior to participating. The geocaching educational outreach project included several partnerships, including with Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle (a.k.a. “Groundspeak”); Cache Advance, Inc., an environmentally friendly outdoor gear company; and Gallatin Valley Geocachers. An advisory board of geocachers helped launch the project.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Suzi TaylorRay CallawayM.J. NehasilCathy Whitlock
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Scientific ignorance can be a potential obstacle in the journey of India becoming a developed nation and a knowledge economy. Such ignorance can also be the cause of various myths, superstitions and blind faiths which can further hinder the development agenda of any nation. Science Communication can potentially dissipate scientific ignorance in the society. Science Communication is a rapidly growing area of expertise both academically and professionally around the globe. It is getting established as an academic discipline with several universities/institutions around the world starting
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Abhay S. D. Rajput
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This paper reviews the purposes, definitions and criteria designed to embed ‘engaged research’ as a strategic priority with universities, and explores some of the challenges of implementation. Surveys of academics have shown various understandings of, and attitudes to, the practices of engaged research, but also impediments to realising the aspirations it expresses. Drawing on the experience as the academic lead for engaged research at the Open University, the author explores questions of professionalisation, for example, through training, support mechanisms and measures of recognition for
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Richard Holliman
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
Science communication research and education programmes worldwide exhibit notable differences as well as similarities. In this essay the authors claim that this diversity is not a problem. They argue that universities can contribute well to the science communication field, theoretically and in practice, if they invest in building collaborations and make use of the ‘networked pattern’ connecting various actors, contexts and contents. As critical nodes in the networks, universities can enable practitioners to deliver real-life cases, students to participate to find solutions and researchers to
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Caroline WehrmannMaarten van der Sanden
resourceresearchProfessional Development, Conferences, and Networks
This essay examines several distinct roles universities play in science communication, with particular reference to professionalisation in the field. It identifies the ways in which universities have facilitated, even driven, that continuing process. But it also notes the potential and actual contradictions between some of the roles of universities, reflecting current developments in higher education across many different contexts.
This is an introduction to four essays in a Commentary that examine contributions of universities to science communication’s development but also challenges in
consolidating those efforts.