Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) — Advancing what works in STEM education

Regional Networks

About the Program

Over the past several years, the work of PKAL has been enriched and extended through collaborative efforts in regional networks of STEM faculty and campus leaders. PKAL currently has five regional networks around the country:

• PKAL Atlanta Regional Network
• PKAL Upstate New York Regional Network
• Southern California PKAL Regional Network (SoCal PKAL)
• Upper Midwest Regional Network
• Willamette Valley Biological Education Network (WVBEN)

Networks are critical to success and the participants in these networks learn from a social networking process that is aimed at the mutual development and adaptation of "what works" strategies to transform STEM learning environments into the kinds of active, student-centered experiences we know work best for all students. What we are learning validates research on dissemination: how ideas evolve, emerge and are enhanced when like-minded colleagues pursue a common vision. This research also speaks directly to the impact of “near-peers” on influencing and persuading others to explore, adapt and assess approaches having demonstrable impact on strengthening STEM learning at all levels. The range and diversity of networks and collaborations now making a difference at the undergraduate level is remarkable; dissolving boundaries of discipline, geography, spheres of responsibility and career stage as they work to transform the undergraduate STEM learning environment in this country.

Our goal must be to collaborate with each other. Our tasks are too great and our time is too short for any other approach.

This call to action from the 1st PKAL National Colloquium (1991) was issued by George E. Brown, then Chair of the House Science Committee, United States House of Representatives. Over the past twenty years, powerful collaborations have been shaped through which individual agents of change make a collective difference. The value of such networks and collaborations is on many levels— primarily serving to promote and facilitate greater adaptation of best/promising practices in transforming programs and spaces that serve student learning in ways that lead to broader transformation of STEM learning at the institutional level.

Learn more about regional events here.