Featured Symposia

This session will focus on how joy and wellness-centered practices can be the foundation for and the reminder of why our humanity matters, particularly in these challenging, hot mess times. We will explore, reflect, and engage in redefining and reclaiming joy as an integral part of mindfully balancing and grappling with what’s next in undergraduate STEM reform.

Separate registration is required.

The National Science Foundation Innovation in Two-Year College (ITYC) Program recognizes that two-year colleges serve a diverse student population, are uniquely positioned to create innovative solutions for achieving STEM equity and play a pivotal role in providing affordable access to higher education and career-relevant STEM pathways to the workforce. The NSF ITYC program aims to support potentially transformative projects, advance innovative, evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education, and promote inclusive equity-oriented initiatives at the Nation’s two-year colleges. In this session, program directors will work with attendees to generate ideas that may result in proposal submissions. Program directors will highlight strategies for building successful partnerships and using disaggregated institutional data to provide context for potential projects.  Attendees will learn more about the submission and review process and be encouraged to engage program directors in a conversation about their potential project ideas.

Separate registration is not required.

This session/workshop will provide STEM faculty/administrators with the skills necessary to decompress from travel, the stressors of the academy, and life/world challenges and discover ways to enter the conference space and any other space with a restorative, joyful mindset.

Separate registration is required.

The U.S. National Science Foundation supports research and work that creates a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce and broadens the implementation of evidence-based systemic change strategies that promote equity for STEM students and faculty in academic workplaces and the academic profession. The NSF has many programs that provide grants to enhance the systemic factors that support equity and inclusion and to mitigate the systemic factors that create inequities in the academic profession and workplaces. Systemic (or organizational) inequities may exist in areas such as policy and practice, organizational culture, and climate. The AAC&U Transforming STEM Higher Education Conference showcases and offers insight into the most recent funding priorities for advancing US undergraduate STEM education reform and the most viable and practical ways to access them. Session leaders will discuss future directions of undergraduate STEM education reform and review funding mechanisms for broadening participation in STEM, as well as NSF’s most recent solicitations for proposals aimed at advancing a national agenda for the reform of undergraduate STEM education that prioritizes racial equity.

Separate registration is not required.

Hosted by NASA's MOSAICS Program (Formerly known as the SMD Bridge Program).

To address the needs of faculty and students at under-resourced emerging research institutions (U/ERIs), such as historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs), and tribal colleges and universities (TCUs), NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) unveiled the Bridge Program in Fall 2021. This community-NASA co-created program aims to create bridges between faculty and students at U/ERIs and research scientists and engineers at NASA centers and facilities. In Fall 2022, NASA convened a five-day workshop for scientific community members to provide input for the Bridge Program, now called MOSAICS. This session will provide an overview of the program and its guiding principles, updates on current and future funding opportunities, and a networking session for questions and answers.

Lunch is provided. Separate registration is required.

Hosted by Blooksy

In an era where artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the way we approach academia, ChatGPT emerges as both a trusted companion and a potential adversary in the world of academic writing and research grant development. Blooksy, is a pioneering content-sharing platform that offers a unique interface for writers and researchers to collaborate with AI, harnessing the power of ChatGPT. With the capacity to assist in crafting research papers, grant proposals, and even entire books, ChatGPT offers an efficient and adaptable tool for academic content creation. Join us for an insightful session that delves into the dynamic realm of AI-driven academic writing, focusing on ChatGPT and its implications for scholarly endeavors.

Lunch is provided. Separate registration is required.

Are you looking for funding to support STEM students? Are you interested in exploring how your ideas could improve STEM education and contribute to meaningful reform? Do you have ideas for collaborating with your colleagues across disciplines or institutions on how to do this important work? Are you from an institution that receives little federal research funding?

If you answered yes to one or more of these questions, this featured session is for you!

The first part of this session will offer an overview of NSF’s mission, its overall strategic interests related to broadening the participation of marginalized students, and its merit review criteria. Participants will learn about NSF funding opportunities that can be leveraged to advance and accelerate broadening participation in research and practice. Special focus will be placed on analyzing relevant, real-world case studies that address challenges and successful strategies associated with inter- and cross-disciplinary research and interventions, as well as those that cross institutional boundaries. The second part of this session invites participants to consider how they may become more engaged in STEM education research, how to establish collaborations with evaluators and colleagues in the social sciences, and how taking these steps can fit into their professional goals, reduce their workload demands, and empower them to be advocates and influencers in undergraduate STEM reform.

Breakfast is provided. Separate registration is required.