NCSCE Projects and Collaborations
International Water and Wastewater-Based Epidemiology, Research, and Surveillance (Anonymous Foundation)
NCSCE has received a grant to fund professional development, laboratory experience, and equipment, supply, and processing subsidies for 5 scientists based in countries identified with the “global south.” Five fellows have been identified working in Kenya, Uruguay, India, and Mexico. The focus of training and support is water and wastewater testing and epidemiology that can be used as early indicator of infectious disease in the community, including COVID, Polio and even Influenza. This is an expansion of the prior mentoring grant as it specifically funds immersive training for new non-US based fellows to advance and extend wastewater research in their home countries (train the trainer) and will connect our existing Water fellows with non-US partners. The first convening of non-US Fellows took place in November, 2023, in San Antonio for an intensive workshop.
( NCSCE as Subawardee or Consultant)
NSF Award # 2247898
Addressing Water Security: towards Student Retention, Improved Relevance, and Increased Readiness, Texas A&M-San Antonio, PI Davida Smyth
San Antonio is one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation and represents an urban center whose natural resources are struggling to keep up with the demand. In Texas, total water demand is predicted to increase by 17% between 2020 and 2070. Texas A&M University-San Antonio (TAMU-SA) is a burgeoning Hispanic-Serving university, with a rapidly increasing enrollment despite decreasing national trends. It has a unique water resources program that aims to generate graduates capable of responding to the region’s water security challenges. This project will help increase student recruitment to this signature STEM program supportive of diverse students, including those currently employed in the water sector, to tackle water-related issues in the region. Importantly, this project will generate data that will be broadly useful in understanding factors that can increase enrollment in these types of degrees across the country. This data will be of use to other programs with a focus on water across the country as well as those serving a post-traditional student population.
NSF Award# 2345355
HSI Implementation and Evaluation Project: Green Chemistry: Advancing Equity, Relevance, and Environmental Justice, Texas Woman’s University, PI Nasrin Mirsaleh Kohan
With support from the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program), this Track 2: IEP at Texas Woman’s University focuses on building 1) green chemistry content knowledge and 2) chemistry interest. This project seeks to increase the relevance of STEM education to underserved students by incorporating green chemistry practices across the introductory chemistry curriculum including Introductory Chemistry, General Chemistry and Principles of Chemistry. The project will ensure students have the knowledge and skills needed to market themselves in job fields, advocate for green chemistry and sustainability, and positively impact their communities while responding to and addressing issues of environmental justice. The project team is a transdisciplinary team of academics, nonprofits, and an advisory board of experts, with a track record of educational transformation and community engagement, to co-construct our curriculum in the context of a minority-serving institution.
NSF Conference Grant: FROM THE LIBERAL ART OF SCIENCE TO THE LIBERATING ART OF SCIENCE: Preparing Students for Science and Society in the Mid-21st Century
Eliza Reilly (SENCER), James Collins (Arizona State University) and Gordon Uno (University of Oklahoma) have been awarded funding for an in-person meeting to facilitate idea generation, new collaborations, and vigorous discussions among approximately 25 scientists, science educators, and members of the higher education community who are interested in reimagining undergraduate STEM education in the United States. Anticipated date of convening will be Spring 2025 at the The National Academies of Science, Engineering and Mathematics in Washington, DC.
(Pending: NCSCE Non-Lead Collaborating Institution):
NSF Proposal #196565
IUSE Institutional and Community Transformation Level II: Collaborative Research: Accelerating Adoption of High Impact Practices Throughout a State University, Binghamton U., PI Michelle Withers
Despite decades of undeniable evidence and a multitude of national reports advocating for changes in higher education, the broad diffusion of evidence-based and high impact practices remains frustratingly slow. This is not surprising as change can be difficult, especially culture change in a complex system. But, culture change is exactly what we need to meet the demand for a diverse, well-prepared STEM workforce while facing current challenges like the enrollment cliff, demographic shift, and broad, public availability of artificial intelligence applications. While serious, these challenges represent a potential inflection point, i.e., significant opportunity for change in the rate of transformation in STEM education by providing the urgency and motivation to improve. To accelerate the process and cultivate a culture change, we propose a systems approach to promote adoption of evidence-based educational practices (e.g., active, inclusive, collaborative instructional strategies) throughout The State University of New York (SUNY), the largest and most diverse university system in the US. Informed by the last four decades of work, our approach will simultaneously bring to bear multiple known levers for change at the levels of the individual, institution, and system. Toward our goal, we have assembled a project team that represents decades of work in educational transformation. Our team includes prominent national transformation organization leaders, discipline-based education researchers, professional developers, and specialists in organizational change and program evaluation. Our collective knowledge of strategies for change, coupled with our experience on the frontlines of transformation, uniquely position us to implement a multifaceted systems-oriented program of change levers while researching what works, and when and why a combination of levers fails to be sufficient.
(NCSCE Collaborating Organization):
NSF Award# 2413264
Incorporating Civic Engagement in Undergraduate STEM: Working to Enable and Sustain Transformation, Bellevue College, PI Sonya Doucette
This project aims to serve the national interest by propagating an effective and innovative faculty professional development program and leadership model that supports faculty at two-year colleges in creating curricula that will broaden the participation of women and racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM as well as prepare students to face the 21st century challenges of global and environmental change that intersect with societal inequities. Using course modules designed by faculty and integrated into their 100- and 200-level courses, across any STEM discipline or field, this project will equip students with the scientific knowledge and practice, as well as the systems thinking skills, equity ethic, and civic engagement tools needed to leverage STEM to create societal change and improve their communities. This Track 2 project, focused on Leveraging Institutional Strengths and Innovation, will propagate the professional development program from Washington (WA) state, where it is well-established, to community colleges in Oregon (OR) and California (CA). Five faculty leaders from WA, OR, and CA will co-develop strategies for institutionalizing the curriculum and expanding its use by STEM faculty beyond “enthusiastic early adopter” faculty, as well as build the capacity of faculty to be change agents for STEM reform at their colleges and develop strategies to support the eventual nationwide expansion of the program. This project will directly benefit a significant number of two-year college STEM faculty (41) and students (2,050) over three years, with changes to STEM teaching made during the project expected to remain indefinitely
Other Collaborations:
BioQUEST/QUBES
NCSCE has committed to supporting and contributing resources to the NSF IUSE-AID Proposal: STEM Education Scholarship (SES) Commons: Connecting faculty, projects, and professional communities to accelerate reform
AAAS Science and Human Rights Coalition Council
NCSCE is a longstanding member of the Council and and participates in the Coalition’s Working Group on Student Engagement