THE WIT, THE WILL ... AND THE WALLET
Supporting Educational Innovation, Shaping our Global Futures
January 20-23, 2010
Washington, DC
Project Kaleidoscope
AAC&U and PKAL have joined forces to advance and amplify work on improving undergraduate education in mathematics, technology, and the various fields of science and engineering (STEM) in colleges and universities across the country.
The 2010 Annual Meeting marks a milestone in the partnership between AAC&U and Project Kaleidoscope with the introduction of the new Director of PKAL – Susan Elrod, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for Excellence in Science and Mathematics Education at California Polytechnic State University. Dr. Elrod will assume leadership in January 2010 and will serve as a member of AAC&U’s senior staff.
We welcome members of the PKAL community who may be engaging with AAC&U for the first time as a result of this partnership
We also extend our warm and sincere appreciation to Jeanne Narum, the Founding Director of Project Kaleidoscope who has provided leadership since 1989. Friends and colleagues of Jeanne Narum are invited to a reception in her honor on Friday, January 22, 6:00-7:30 pm. (See more information below about that reception.)
Pre-Meeting Workshop, Wednesday, January 20, 2:00-5:00 pm
Transforming Undergraduate STEM Education: Exploring the Dimensions of Leadership
What makes a community aspire to a more desired future? Leadership.
What does it take for a community to achieve that future? Leadership.
Workshop participants will explore the why and the how of leadership in STEM reform in 2010 and beyond. Workshop facilitators will share stories culled from Project Kaleidoscope’s twenty year history, stories that illustrate varied approaches to developing and nurturing leadership teams to shape sustainable and robust undergraduate STEM learning environments. Through presentations, facilitated discussions, collective conversations, and reporting-out, participants will identify and explore some of the key challenges they face in current efforts to transform undergraduate STEM education. Special attention will be given to the role of culture and context in efforts to mobilize a community. Facilitators will capture ideas for leadership development related to three dimensions—at the campus level, at the personal level, and at the level of the AAC&U-PKAL partnership.Creative ideas will be prepared for later dissemination through the AAC&U-PKAL web site and will help shape the emerging AAC&U-PKAL partnership. An additional product of the workshop will be a set of resources on leadership development.
Jeanne Narum, Founding Director, Project Kaleidoscope; Susan Elrod, Director of Project Kaleidoscope; Neal Abraham, Executive Director, Five Colleges, Incorporated; and Judith A. Dilts, Associate Dean of College of Science and Mathematics, James Madison University
PKAL Forum (Invitational)
Thursday, January 21, 2:45-5:45 p.m.
Shaping PKAL/STEM Priorities for the Next Five Years
Acknowledging the broad-based campus support for the PKAL Transition, this invitational forum will locate PKAL at AAC&U in the context of new priorities for STEM research and undergraduate learning.
The PKAL Forum is open to AAC&U member presidents and colleagues from the many disciplinary societies, foundations, government agencies, and organizations who have supported and worked with Project Kaleidoscope through the years. Registration information will be sent out in November; participation in the PKAL Forum is limited.
Featured Session:
Friday, January 22, 8:45-10:15 am
A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives on Student Learning Goals – STEM & Beyond
This session will examine contemporary goals for assessing student learning in STEM disciplines using a variety of tools, from analysis of NSSE data to AAC&U’s VALUE Project rubrics.The focus of this session will be on assessing interdisciplinary and integrative learning in STEM disciplines from a variety of perspectives. There is a remarkable coherence in the kaleidoscope of perspectives on what students should know and be able to do as a result of their experiences in the undergraduate learning environment. Cognitive science research validates the intuition that learning is deepest when students have the opportunity to engage with peers in the collaborative process of constructing their own knowledge, when that engagement models the authentic activity of the practitioner in the field, and when that engagement is designed strategically to move student toward assuming the identity of practitioner—citizen, K-12 teacher, professionals in all possible vocations. PKAL’s vision of what works reflects that theory in ways that suggest how to use student learning goals as the foundation for shaping and reshaping the undergraduate STEM learning environment. Recognizing that assessment of student learning is distinct from program evaluation, the panel will outline the key issues, setting the stage for an at-the-table discussion that further explores the kaleidoscopic perspectives presented for setting student learning goals in STEM fields and designing, implementing and assessing programs that serve those learning goals.
Facilitator: Susan Elrod, Director of Project Kaleidoscope
Presenters: Jillian Kinzie, Associate Director, Center for Postsecondary Research, Indiana University Bloomington; Jim Swartz, Dack Professor of Chemistry, Director Center for Science and the Liberal Arts, Grinnell College; Charles Blaich, Director of Inquiries, Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts, Wabash College; Ashley Finley, Director of Assessment for Learning, AAC&U
Kinzie PowerPoint
(PDF)
Featured Session:
Friday, January 22, 10:30-11:45 am
A Kaleidoscope of Perspectives on Institutional Transformation, STEM & Beyond
Questions that drove the thinking and planning and dreaming of the first cadre of PKAL leaders centered around getting students to share the passion of STEM practitioners (their faculty), to understand the power and potential, connectedness and relevance of the STEM disciplines “…from the very first day.” Twenty years ago, the documented dismalness of the lower level STEM courses was a major catalyst for mobilizing pioneering efforts to reinvent what students experienced ‘from the very first day.’ It is time to refocus on the lower level STEM courses, recognizing although that much has been accomplished, much still needs to be done if all students are to become engaged STEM learners. It is time to consider lessons learned on campuses where systemic and sustainable transformation is visible and to translate their experiences into a broader agenda for action—at the local level and within the PKAL/AAC&U partnership. A new generation of PKAL leaders will describe their experiences in shaping a communal sense of how lower level STEM courses serve the institutional mission; motivate all students to consider careers in related fields—from K-12 science/math teacher to an engineer working on global environment issues; and prepare all students for leadership in these challenging times.
Facilitator: Jeanne Narum, Founding Director of Project Kaleidoscope
Presenters: Robin Bingham, Professor of Biology, Western State College of Colorado; Katayoun Chamany, Associate Professor, Science, Technology and Society Program, Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts; Kelly McConnaughay, Associate Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Bradley University; Alison Morrison-Shetlar, Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, University of Central Florida; Kyle Seifert, Assistant Professor of Biology, James Madison University; Scott Van Bramer, Professor of Chemistry & Department Chair, Widener University
PKAL Session - Worksheet Questions to Address (PDF)
PKAL Session F21 Information (PDF)
PKAL Session Planning Process (PDF)
PKAL Session References (PDF)
PKAL Session Worksheet (pdf)
Concurrent Session
Friday, January 22, 2:45-4:00 pm
Developing Comprehensive Institutional Plans for Success in More Inclusive STEM Undergraduate Education
Across the United States, traditionally white colleges and universities continue to under-perform in attracting and retaining women and students of color as undergraduates majoring in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Science faculty and staff from nine national liberal arts colleges, supported by a Faculty Career Enhancement grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are using their collective programmatic successes and failures to create generic guidelines for establishing and sustaining comprehensive undergraduate STEM diversity programs. Panelists will describe successful comprehensive program elements and will discuss, with the audience, common departmental and institutional barriers to change and strategies for overcoming those barriers.
Presenters: Jim Swartz, Dack Professor of Chemistry, Director Center for Science and the Liberal Arts, Grinnell College; Wendy Raymond, Associate Professor of Biology & Associate Dean for Institutional Diversity, Williams College; Trish Ferrett, Professor of Chemistry, Carleton College; Kate Queeney, Associate Professor of Chemistry, Smith College; Jeff Tecosky-Feldman, Senior Lecturer in Mathematics, Haverford College
Concurrent Session
Saturday, January 23, 9:45-10:45 am
Engaging Science Continued:
What institutions are doing to advance STEM learning
The panel will discuss institutional leadership, encouragement and empowering faculty to explore and innovate to engage students of diverse backgrounds in STEM learning, continuing the discussions from the AACU’s Engaging Science: Advancing Learning meeting. Visit our blog and complete our survey to participate in the conversation about what you and your institution are doing to improve STEM learning.
Presenters: Steve Kucera, Associate Professor of Biology, The University of Tampa; Susan Gorman, Dean and Professor of Biology, Stevenson University; Fred Ledley, Professor and Chair, Department of Natural and Applied Sciences, Bentley University
Engaging Science PowerPoint
(PDF)
RECEPTION IN HONOR OF JEANNE NARUM
Friday, January 22, 6:00-7:30 pm
The Grand Hyatt Hotel
Constitution A
Please join friends and colleagues in celebrating Jeanne Narum's 20 years as Founding Director of Project Kaleidoscope and her outstanding contributions to improving undergraduate science education.
RSVP by January 8, 2010, to cshute@pkal.org
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