National Science Foundation INCLUDES Conference

Multi-Scale Evaluation in STEM Education

NIMBioS and NISER co-hosted an NSF INCLUDES Conference on Multi-Scale Evaluation in STEM Education. INCLUDES stands for the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science. Effective program evaluation is an essential component of STEM education and workforce development. The conference and associated events aimed to enhance participants' abilities to develop an evaluation plan that meets the needs of an INCLUDES Alliance Project. Participants included individuals involved in current INCLUDES projects, those considering collaborating in such projects and STEM educators considering inclusion of formal evaluation in their projects. Examples of program evaluation developed by the program organizers are available at https://www.stemeval.org.

The program consisted of a conference, an online webinar, and a tutorial.

NSF Award Abstract #1650390

Documents:

• Annual Project Report to NSF for Sept 2016 to August 2017 for Award 1650390
• The Project Evaluation Report for Sept 2016 - Aug 2017
• The Project Outcomes Report
• The Final Project Report
• The Project Webinar Evaluation Report

Descriptive flyer

Webinar*: Program Evaluation 101
*Open to the public. No in-person attendance.

• Date: 2 p.m. EST, February 9, 2017
• Location: Online
• Webinar slides (pdf)
• Webinar video

Pre-Conference Tutorial: Modern Methods in Program Evaluation
* Pre-conference tutorial was intended for those with little prior experience in program evaluation.

• Date: February 22, 2017
• Location: NIMBioS
• Schedule: (pdf)

Conference: Multi-Scale Evaluation in STEM Education

• Date: February 23–24, 2017
• Location: University of Tennessee Conference Center, Knoxville
• Schedule: (pdf)

Organizers

• Louis J. Gross (Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics; Director Emeritus, NIMBioS; Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville)
• Pamela Bishop (Director, National Institute for STEM Evaluation; NIMBioS Associate Director for STEM Evaluation)
• Ernest Brothers (NIMBioS Associate Director for Diversity Enhancement; Assoc. Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the Office of Graduate Training and Mentorship, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville)
• Suzanne Lenhart (NIMBioS Associate Director for Education and Outreach; Mathematics, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville)

Speakers

• Pamela Bishop* (Director, National Institute for STEM Evaluation; NIMBioS Associate Director for STEM Evaluation)
  Topic: How evaluation can help improve your program
• David Bressoud (Director, Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences; DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics, Macalester College)
  Topic: National evaluation of undergraduate mathematics efforts
• Byron Greene (Florida A&M Univ.; Assoc. Director, Florida Georga Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation)
  Topic: Managing, maintaining and leading healthy alliances in STEM education
• Louis J. Gross (James R. Cox and Alvin and Sally Beaman Distinguished Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics; Director Emeritus, NIMBioS; Director, The Institute for Environmental Modeling, Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville)
  Topic: Multi-scale science and multi-scale evaluation: Some parallels
• Melvin Hall (Professor, Educational Psychology, Northern Arizona Univ.)
  Topic: Integrating cultural contexts for more effective program evaluation
• Barbara P. Heath* (Lead Consultant; East Main Evaluation & Consulting, LLC)
  Topic: Evaluation approaches: Two examples
• Eurmon Hervey, Jr. (Research Fellow, Clemson Univ.; National VP, Catapult Learning, LLC.)
  Topic: Understanding the "Why": Making the case for qualitative evaluation methods in a quantitative (STEM) world
• Ashanti Johnson (CEO/Superintendent of Cirrus Academy, and Associate Professor of Education at Mercer Univ.)
  Topic: Broadening participation in STEM: Lessons from projects at different scales
• Kirk Knestis (CEO, Hezel Associates)
  Topic: Evaluating STEM teaching-and-learning innovations at multiple scales
• Frances Lawrenz* (Assoc. Vice President for Research; Wallace Professor of Teaching and Learning, Educational Psychology Dept., Univ. of Minnesota)
  Topic: Overview of methods for multi-site, multi-level evaluation in STEM education
• Sondra LoRe* (Evaluation Associate, the National Institute for STEM Evaluation)
  Topic: Designing the evaluation plan

* denotes speakers who will be giving Tutorial presentations

These STEM evaluation activities are supported by the National Science Foundation through award HRD-1650390 to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

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