West

SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) and Campus Compact – Mountain West are partnering to host a conference focusing on advancing STEM teaching and learning through high-impact practices (e.g. undergraduate research and community engagement) and compelling civic issues, particularly sustainability.  We invite a thread of indigenous science and ways of knowing through all of our tracks. We also welcome faculty across the disciplines to engage in discussions through the conference.

Track 1 – Undergraduate Research through the STEM Curriculum

Organizers: Dick Sheardy and Cynthia Maguire from Texas Woman’s University, Steve Bachofer at St. Mary’s College of California

Track 2 – Models for Community Engagement focused on STEM

Organizers: Stephanie Schooley with Campus Compact, Bob Franco from Kapiolani Community College  and Ulla Hasager from University Hawaii Manoa

Track 3 – Sustainability: Responsibility and Engagement across all disciplines:

Organizers: Amy Shachter from Santa Clara University and Cat Kleier from Regis University

Track 4 – Strengthening the Liberal Arts: Humanities, Social Sciences and STEM in Partnership: Eliza Reilly from The SENCER National Center and Stephen Carroll from Santa Clara University

Detailed Schedule

Track Leader Bios

Meeting Resources

9 Steps to Designing a SENCER Model in 1 Hour
Presented by Stephen Carroll and Eliza Reilly

Strategic Local Partnerships for Engaging Undergraduate Science Students in Opportunities of Civic Importance
Presented by G. Reid Bishop

More Ideas to Build on the Zoo Project
Presented by G. Reid Bishop

Animal Movement Study
Video by Belhaven University Students

High Impact STEM Learning and the Humanities
Presented by Eliza Reilly and Stephn Carroll

Campus Compact of the Mountain West
Presented by CCMW

Undergraduate Research and Civic Engagement
Presented by Steve Bachofer, Richard Sheardy, and Cynthia Maguire

High Impact STEM Education: A SENCER Campus Compact Partnership
Presented by Amy Shachter

Track 3: Sustainability Description and Overview
Presented by Amy Shachter and Catherine Kleier

A SENCER Model: Chemistry and the Environment
Presented by Amy Shachter

Strategies for Integrating Sustainability Across the Curriculum
Presented by Amy Shachter

Theme: Sustainability and High Impact STEM Education

Registration Details:

There is a flat registration charge of $25 to participate in either or both days of the institute. Please note that there are no registration refunds. Capacity of Sunday’s activities at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology on Coconut Island is limited to the first 40 attendees. Transportation from UH Manoa Campus to He’eia Pier will be arranged.

Register for the Institute

If you would like to be apart of the Saturday poster session or give a presentation on Sunday please complete this google form.

To present for both days, please complete the form twice. You will receive an email confirmation when your submission is reviewed and approved. The deadline to submit the form for a poster or presentation will be Wednesday, March 9th at 5 PM Hawaii Time.

For further questions on presenting during the Saturday or Sunday sessions you can contact Ulla Hasager, Director of Civic Engagement for the College of Social Sciences at University Hawaii Manoa at [email protected].  

Event Description:

SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) Hawai’i is hosting a spring institute focusing on innovative teaching and learning through high-impact practices (e.g. undergraduate research and community engagement) and compelling civic issues, particularly around sustainability. We invite faculty, administrators, and students to consider how to thread Indigenous sciences and ways of knowing through all of our courses and research. We also welcome faculty across the disciplines to engage in discussions throughout the conference.

Saturday’s activities offer an array of concurrent and poster sessions with a keynote from Karen Oates, Dean of Arts and Sciences & Professor of Biochemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and 2015-2016 Sigma Xi distinguished lecturer.

Come and share your experiences, network, and learn more about:

• how to integrate SENCER theory and practice into STEM courses designed for both general education and STEM majors
• how to use the SENCER assessment tools – and create your own SALG (Student Assessment of Learning Gains) survey instrument
• how sustainability and climate change can be the cornerstone for active & project-based learning
• how to utilize existing and create collaborative, civic-engagement projects as part of sustainability education

Institute Schedule

Read summaries of proceedings and events:

• SENCER, Sustainability, and the Hawaiian Islands
  Click to learn about SENCER’s participation in Hawaiʻi’s 3rd Annual Higher Education Sustainability Summit.
• Faculty Institute
  Click to read about the SCI-West sponsored faculty institute, which featured presentations by Hawaiian faculty and visiting SENCER representatives.
• Kapi’olani Community College Site Visit and SENCER Reception
  Click to read about the visiting SENCER’s teams first site visit while in the islands, and Dean Denise Eby Konan’s reception for the group.
• Windward Community College Site Visit
  Click to read about the SENCER team’s busy day at WCC, from sitting in on a class to touring an ancient fishpond.
• University of Hawai’i at Hilo and Hawai’i Community College Site Visits
  Click to read about the SENCER team’s visit to the big island spent meeting with students and faculty.
• University of Hawai’i at West O’ahu Site Visit, Hawai’i Public Radio Interview, and Hawai’i Strategy Institute Presentation
  Click to read about the SENCER team’s last days in Hawai’i, featuring a radio interview, trip to West O’ahu’s campus, and presentation on strategic implementation of SENCER.

Mike McAlpin, Director of Media Relations
Original story posted here

How do you increase students’ interest in STEM subjects and at the same time create a civic engagement course that benefits communities surrounding your college? That question was the focus of math and science professors from a dozen California colleges and universities who gathered at Saint Mary’s for a regional conference on November 16, sponsored by SENCER.

Saint Mary’s chemistry professor Steve Bachofer, along with Santa Clara University chemistry professor and senior associate provost Amy Shachter, the co-directors of SENCER’s Center of Innovation for the West Coast (SCI–West), hosted the conference in the Soda Center and Brousseau Hall.

“The SCIs are regional centers that support faculty involved in SENCER projects and these regional meetings give faculty pursuing SENCER coursework an opportunity, and a venue, to present their findings and project research,” said Bachofer. “The gatherings also serve as a way to recruit new faculty into the SENCER family, so to speak, by showing them how these sorts of class assignments can be successful with students and with community partners.”

Bachofer’s course Urban Environmental Issues, a civic engagement class that examines how a contaminated formal U.S. Naval Base in Alameda is being reclaimed for use by the City of Alameda was selected as a model course by SENCER. The Saint Mary’s chemistry professor developed the popular course 10 years ago with SMC sociology professor Phylis Martinelli. The course is now an example SENCER uses to help professors across the nation develop science civic engagement courses.

More than 30 professors, including 10 STEM faculty members from Saint Mary’s, attended the mid-November SENCER conference. Biology professor Vidya Chandrasekaran, who partnered with Bachofer in organizing the event, said the event provided faculty with opportunities to compare notes and discuss ideas for new approaches in the classroom.

“It allowed me connect with biology faculty at SF State and LMU (Loyola Marymount University) who are incorporating civic engagement in their courses,” said Chandrasekaran. She added that since some of the attendees were new to SENCER, a poster session displaying successful SENCER courses was very useful. “They were able to see what other professors have done and were able to talk to them about the issues involved with implementing a civic engagement course on their overall curriculum and, importantly, what institutional resources are needed for success.”

Both Chandrasekaran and Bachofer noted that Saint Mary’s hosting of the SENCER conference was timely. The College’s new core curriculum requires participation in campus-wide courses that engage the world in substantial and meaningful ways, including math and science courses that promote the common good and provide opportunities for community engagement.

The conference included workshops on designing a SENCER course, incorporating civic engagement in math courses and examples of successful science and civic engagement initiatives. It also featured a KQED educational media session on using multimedia to teach science and reach out to the public. KQED presenter Andrea Swensrud said more science professors are exploring how multimedia tools can assist in the classroom and in making science accessible to the public. “They are creating their own media now, blogging, using digital storytelling, slideshows, creating short little videos, using different ways to get their work out into the community, instead of just publishing papers,” said Swensrud. With so many channels of communication available through social media she added, “it’s really important for scientists to know how to communicate information about their work in a variety of ways.”

Mathematics professor Ellen Veomett, one of the Saint Mary’s professors in attendance, said she found the conference to be very informative. She was especially interested in how LMU structured a civic engagement mathematics course around outcomes at a health facility. Veomett is currently working with mathematics professor Chris Jones on the upcoming Jan Term class Math In the City: California Prison Realignment, which aligns with the goals of SENCER. Using statistical data from the state, her class will analyze the effects of the realignment of the California correctional system, which has transferred thousands of inmates from state prisons to county jails.

The outcomes of Veomett’s Jan Term class could possibly wind up as an example at a future SENCER conference. There is precedent for it. Steve Bachofer’s model SENCER course on urban environmental issues started out as a Jan Term course examining the impact of closures of Bay Area naval bases. The rest is science and civic engagement history.