Blog

Don’t Forget the People and the Story: Seven Best Practices for Effective Communication

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
STEM PUSH Network Launches Communications Training for Stakeholders By Alyssa Briggs and Veronica Gonzales TIES (backbone organization for STEM PUSH ) This is a test. Please read the following two paragraphs and then answer the question that follows. Paragraph #1 - STEM is a great way to engage students and launch them on meaningful academic career trajectories. Students who engage in STEM in early grades are more likely to follow a concrete STEM trajectory throughout their schooling and lives. Paragraph #2 - Robert and Mary are students in a first grade class where they learn math by racing insects across the room. In second grade, ...

New Coordination Hub Research Brief: Evidence-based Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Girls and Women in STEM

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By Karen Peterson, Chief Executive Officer, National Girls Collaborative Project; Katarina Lucas, Senior Project Manager, National Girls Collaborative Project; and Daniela Saucedo, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub March is Women’s History Month, a time “for commemorating and encouraging the study, observance, and celebration of the vital role of women in American history.” 1 This March, the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub is pleased to share our latest research brief, Evidence-based Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Girls and Women in STEM . The brief explores gender disparities along educational and career pathways and discusses strategies to address ...

Federal Agencies and NSF INCLUDES Network Members Share Best Practices in STEM Virtual Internships

By Evangeline Ambat
By Evangeline Ambat, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub As the coronavirus pandemic continued into a new year, the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub launched into 2021 with a focus on virtual STEM internships, hosting two webinars with federal agencies and a live Twitter chat. The webinars were well attended and engaging, sharing valuable insights into best practices for recruiting, welcoming, and managing virtual interns, and highlighting the many ways in which the scientific teams at U.S. federal agencies are taking effective action to broaden participation in STEM. The first webinar on January 28 focused on “ Best Practices in Virtual Internships ” and featured ...

NSF INCLUDES National Network Website: What’s New?

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By Pradipti Bhatta and Evangeline Ambat, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub The NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub kicked off 2021 with a new look for the NSF INCLUDES National Network website and improvements to the online community . In response to feedback from Network members , we developed a fresh new look for the homepage ; more user-friendly navigation ; streamlined access to information about the National Network, the NSF INCLUDES initiative , and the Coordination Hub ; increased our use of imagery throughout the site and added a page featur ing the most recent Hub resources for non- Network ...
 
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Looking Back at 2020 as a Year of Challenge and Innovation

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By: Carise Mitch, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub In a year of unprecedented challenges, NSF INCLUDES Network members innovated and adapted, always moving forward and finding new opportunities to broaden participation in STEM education and careers. A recent discussion thread on the Network’s online community highlighted just a few of 2020’s success stories: Scott Bellman, of the Do-It (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center shared that they, along with the Center for Neurotechnology (CNT) – a NSF Engineering Research Center - launched a new program for neurodiverse learners, planned for March 2020. The pandemic forced ...
 
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Upcoming Webinars Feature Virtual Internship Opportunities at Federal Agencies and Advice on Virtual Internship Best Practices

By Evangeline Ambat
Author: Carise Mitch, Coordination Hub STEM internships can be life-changing experiences for students, expanding horizons and paving the way to further study and future careers. Federal agencies offer unique opportunities for students to learn from skilled scientists working in many exciting fields, from geology and earth sciences to engineering, computer science, and more. Over the last year, many organizations and students have pivoted to virtual internships, discovering new challenges as well as new opportunities along the way. The NSF INCLUDES National Network kicks off 2021 with an exciting two-part webinar series exploring best practices and opportunities ...
 
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How the STEM PUSH Network Exemplifies a Network Improvement Community (NIC)

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By David Boone, Jan Morrison and Davin Sweeney, STEM PUSH Network And Matthew Closter, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub The NSF Coordination Hub recently featured two important resources: a research brief on Collaborative Change Models and a blog from the STEM PUSH Network (Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education Network). The two complement each other, with the brief mapping collaborative change models to the NSF INCLUDES five design elements of Collaborative Infrastructure , and the blog illustrating how one of the collaborative change models, a Network Improvement Community (NIC), can work in practice. The Coordination ...

Money. Race. Privilege. Class. Inequity.

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
Now is the Moment to Disrupt the College Admissions Process Here Are Some Ideas Curated by the STEM PUSH Network By David Boone, Jan Morrison and Davin Sweeney The STEM PUSH Network (Pathways for Underrepresented Students to Higher Education Network) , one of the NSF INCLUDES-funded Alliances , uses a networked improvement community approach to transform college admissions. The STEM PUSH Network aims to: Develop a pre-college improvement community within the National STEM Ecosystem Develop an accreditation system for STEM pre-college programs Provide an equitable, evidence-based metric to higher education ...
 
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Join an Affinity Group Today!

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By Sara Greller , NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub Wondering how you could become more actively engaged in the NSF INCLUDES National Network? Joining an Affinity Group is a great way for NSF INCLUDES Network members to connect around similar goals, foci, interests, needs, or approaches to broadening participation in STEM . The NSF INCLUDES Affinity Groups were created in response to the needs and requests of Network members to have a designated virtual s pace for discussion and sharing of resources on specific topics of interest. Who should join an Affinity Group? Any member of the Network! ...
 
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Back to School: Learnings from the Coordination Hub’s Twitter Chat

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By Daniela Saucedo and Pradipti Bhatta , NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub On Friday September 25 th , the Coordination Hub hosted a live # INCLUDESchat on Twitter to discuss challenges and opportunities in STEM education with the start of the new academic year. We were joined by NSF INCLUDES National Network members and others working to improve diversity and inclusion in STEM . 6 guest panelists helped guide the conversation: Dipaya Banerjee , NSF Graduate Research Fellow, PhD Student, Georgia Institute of Technology @Dipayan_B Leah Graniela -Loving , Senior Manager, Youth Education & Equity , Techbridge ...
 
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Innovative STEM DIVE Video Series Showcases Creative Broadening Participation Strategies Across the Country

By NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub
By Dr. Simone Soso , NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub, QEM Five entries in this year’s National Science Foundation’s STEM Diversity and Inclusion Video Exhibition Challenge (STEM DIVE) took top honors for their videos showcasing innovative, effective, and replicable approaches to building a diverse and inclusive STEM workforce. From Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) students in Indiana designing a graphic novel of their research to a high school curriculum introducing circuitry and computer science through crafting, the STEM DIVE videos highlight exciting efforts taking place around the country to make STEM engaging and accessible ...

Wabanaki Youth Science (WaYS) Program Connects Native Students to STEM through Culture and Heritage

By Jenna Rush
The NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub i s always interested in learning and sharing project updates and stories with Network members. As part of this process, we recently spoke with the Wabanaki Youth Science ( WaYS ) program , a NSF INCLUDES - funded DDLP (Design and Development Launch Pilot) based in Penobscot County, Maine , to learn more about how WaYS is supporting Wabanaki students to embrac e STEM fields , especially environmental science, through culture and heritage . The official WaYS program , which began in 201 2 , is currently a collaboration between the University of Maine at Orono, the U.S. Forest ...

Coordination Hub Research Brief: Inclusivity and Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities in STEM

By Jenna Rush
Contributed by Dr. Sheryl Burgstahler (DO-IT Center), Dr. Brianna Blaser (DO-IT Center), and Daniela Saucedo (Coordination Hub) We are pleased to share the Inclusivity and Accessibility for Individuals with Disabilities in STEM research brief , the second research product from the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub team. We note that this summer commemorates the 30 th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), which provides protections against discrimination of people with disabilities in several areas including employment, education, health care, recreation, transportation, and housing, and we continue to strive to provide the highest ...

Enduring Lessons about Effective Leadership and Communication

By Jenna Rush
In the recent webinar, Leadership and Communication: Co-Creating Alignment and Awareness , NSF INCLUDES Network members shared strategies, resources, and tools related to effective leadership and communication. This Network Spotlight highlights enduring lessons about effective leadership and communication relevant under any circumstances, but which have been particularly important during this time. Our presenters were: Mimi Lufkin , CEO Emerita, National Alliance for Partners in Equity ( NAPE ) and the PI for the NSF INCLUDES DDLP, IM STEM ; Brianna Blaser , Ph.D., Project Coordinator for AccessINCLUDES at the University of Washington’s DO-IT Center ; and ...

INCLUDES: Making a collective impact to broaden participation in STEM

By Jenna Rush
Written by Sylvia James, Deputy Assistant Director, Education and Human Resources Directorate, National Science Foundation In 1983, fresh out of college with a bachelor’s degree in biology, my first job focused on science education, which enabled me to address the issue of limited access for groups historically underrepresented in science. STEM participation rates for women, African Americans, Native Americans and Latinos were much lower than I expected. Unfortunately, 40 years later, work still needs to be done to make science inclusive . Today, as the nation is engaged in conversations about race and equity, we need to reexamine the STEM ...

Network Spotlight: STEM Core Alliance Highlights Partnerships Leading to Student’s College Success

By Evangeline Ambat
Written by Anne Palmer , Ed.D. , Stanford University, Executive Director Stanford Educational Leadership Initiative, STEM Core Alliance Director of Faculty Development. The STEM Core Alliance is an NSF-supported Alliance of 25 U.S. community colleges dedicated to broadening participation from people in groups traditionally underrepresented in STEM academic pathways and careers. ******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************** When Shadi Elaridi was in ...
 
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Engaging Student Voice: Learnings from the Coordination Hub’s Twitter Chat

By Jenna Rush
By Daniela Saucedo and Pradipti Bhatta Leadership and Communication is one of the five elements of Collaborative Infrastructure which is a tenet of the NSF INCLUDES initiative. The INCLUDES National Network explores questions such as how to co-create alignment and awareness and engage your core audiences. Engaging student voices is an important part of this process. On May 29 th , the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub hosted a #INCLUDESChat on Twitter highlighting the importance of incorporating student voice in broadening participation in STEM. We were joined by our wonderful guest presenters who helped guide the conversation: First2Network @First2Network ...

Resources from Network Members to Continue Supporting Broadening Participation During COVID-19

By Jenna Rush
By Matthew Closter, NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub During the COVID-19 pandemic, NSF INCLUDES National Network members are focused on continuing online education and learning experiences, as well as fostering channels for constituents to stay connected. In this time of physical distancing, with travel mitigated and in-person engagements diminished, members are striving to reach their audiences virtually and provide as much guidance and support as they can. Alliances with a focus on faculty, graduate student, and institutional networks, such as Aspire , the Computing Alliance of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (CAHSI) , and the Inclusive Graduate Education ...
 
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Federal Agency Spotlight: U.S. Department of Education’s Focus on Broadening Participation in STEM/CS

By Jenna Rush
The Department of Education is one of several federal agencies collaborating with the National Science Foundation and the NSF INCLUDES National Network to scale and sustain progress to broaden participation in STEM academic pathways and careers. Keep reading below to learn about the Department’s investments in STEM. *** Contributed by The Department of Education While most of the Department of Education’s budget is distributed to the states and school districts via various formulas that target low-income students, the Department also manages a variety of competitive grants that prioritize Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education, including ...

New Coordination Hub Research Brief: Evidence-Based Strategies for Broadening Participation in STEM

By Jenna Rush
By Daniela Saucedo and Mercy Mugo Marginalized racial and ethnic groups continue to be underrepresented in science and engineering fields (NSF, 2019). To address these persistent disparities, it is critical to develop and implement strategies that attract and retain Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian, Native Hawaiian, Alaskan Native, and other Pacific Islander students and professionals in STEM. We are pleased to share the Evidence-based Strategies for Improving Equity and Inclusion of Individuals in Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Groups , the first research brief from the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub team. The brief explores ...