Calendar
MRSEC Director's/ Education Director's Meeting
Evaluating Educational Outreach Programs
April 13-14, 2006
(tentative schedule--check back for updates)
Hotel arrangements: A block of rooms have been set aside at the Chicago Intercontinental Hotel (505 N. Michigan Ave) for the night of April 13th at a discount rate (available through March 31st) of $139 for the main building and $164 for the historic tower. To make your reservations by phone, call 1-800-381-9552 and ask for the MRSEC Directors Meeting rate(code BOL). Or go to the hotel website: <http://chicago.intercontinental.com> and enter BOL as the meeting/event code under group reservations.
Thursday, April 13th: Introductions/ Dinner/ Poster Session (Burnham Room, Intercont. Hotel and Gleacher Center, rm. 621)
3:00pm UofC MRSEC Director’s welcome; brief overview of each Center’s scientific and educational activities by educational outreach personnel [~5 minutes per Center, 5 slides max (no REU or RET talks, but overviews of the whole thing so everyone gets a sense of the other centers’ core activities)] (Intercontinental Hotel, Burnham Room).
5:00pm set up posters, meeting with National Research Council MRSEC Impact Evaluation Subcommittee (Gleacher Center, rm. 621)
6:00pm dinner in small groups, w/ NRC, downtown Chicago
7-9:00pm poster session and reception w/ Educational personnel and MRSEC Directors (posters on educational activities, Gleacher Center, rm. 621)
Friday, April 14th (University of Chicago, Center for
Integrative Science, 929 E. 57th Street, 3rd floor conference room)
7:45am Continental breakfast/ informal discussions
8:15-8:30am Welcome, etc.
8:30-9:00am NSF announcements
[Talks: 30 minutes, 15 minutes discussion]
9:00-9:45am Using qualitative methods to understand
the benefits of undergraduate research (Elaine Seymour,
Colorado)
Elaine Seymour and her research group are engaged in a comparative and
longitudunal study of the benefits to undergraduate research participants,
the processes whereby these are generated, and the benefits and costs to
faculty undergraduate research advisors.
9:45-10:30am National REU and RET
program evaluations (Susan H. Russell, SRI International)
Susan H. Russell is the Director of Survey Research at the Center for Science,
Technology and Economic Development (CSTED). For the NSF, she directed the
most comprehensive survey of REU programs with >18,000 survey respondents.
She also directed a national survey of RET programs.
10:30-11:15am Informal science education evaluations
(Deborah Perry, Selinda Research Associates, Chicago, IL)
Selinda Research Associates, Inc., provides evaluation, research, and consultation
services for museums and other informal learning environments. Clients include
the Exploratorium, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, Science Museum
of Minnesota, St. Louis Science Center, and Museum of Science in Boston.
[Panel: 15 minutes for each panelist, 30 minutes discussion]
11:15am-12:30pm Panel discussion: Evaluating MRSEC
educational outreach programs
[William Trochim (Cornell University); Mark Hertle,
Seattle Public Schools; Julie Foertsch, University of Wisconsin
LEAD Center]
William Trochim (Dept. of Policy, Cornell University)
is co-PI of a new study on building evaluation system capacity for STEM
programs
Mark Hertle is the Director of Science Materials
for the Seattle Public Schools, and former Program Director for the HHMI
K-12 Division.
Julie Foertsch is the Director of the University
of Wisconsin, Madison LEAD (Learning through Evaluation, Adaptation, and
Dissemination) Center .
For Educational Outreach Personnel:
12:30-1:30pm lunch
Practicum: [Julie Foertsch, University
of Wisconsin LEAD Center, facilitating]
1:30-3:00pm Creating your own evaluation: general guidelines
[focusing an evaluation, methodology, writing survey questions, sampling,
statistical methods….]
3:00-4:30pm Break into groups to brainstorm and begin development
of MRSEC-wide evaluation instruments (possible categories):
* diversity initiatives
* demo programs/open houses
* science camps/clubs
* classroom modules
4:30 – 5:00pm Wrap-Up / Adjourn
For MRSEC Directors:
12:30-1:45pm Lunch / Working Groups meet
1:45-2:00pm NSDL & its Pathways Overview (Laura
Bartolo, Kent State University; PI, NSDL Materials Digital Library
Pathway)
2:00 – 2:30pm Hybrid live cell - supported
membrane junctions: new synthetic lipid membrane technologies for studies
of living cells (Jay Groves, UC Berkeley )
2:30 - 3:00pm Soft matter for biology: one vignette
on mimicking H5N1 and another on physical control of Stem Cells (Dennis
Discher, University of Pennsylvania)
3:00 – 3:30pm Report from Working Groups
4:00pm Adjourn