STEM Education Summit - Alumni Workshop | Virtual

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STEM Education Summit - Alumni Workshop | Virtual

The Smithsonian Science Education Center and Howard University are inviting the former participants and their extended collaborators of the annual STEM Education Summit that has been held since 2017 with the goal of building a coalition for attracting and retaining diversity in the K-12 STEM teaching workforce.

In a desire to re-engage with educators we have worked with since this summit’s inception, we would like to cordially invite you to the virtual STEM Education Summit - Alumni Workshop this summer, July 8, 2021 from 10am to 5pm Eastern and July 9, 2021 from 10am to 4:30pm Eastern. 

At this Alumni Workshop, former participants and their collaborators will consort with one another to reflect on their implementation of action plans , share common struggles and obstacles, discuss strategies to attract and retain the K-12 STEM teachers with diverse backgrounds, and develop an overarching shared vision to expand the network and to enhance systems change for diversifying K-12 STEM teaching workforce.

This Alumni Workshop is open to:

  • Former participants of the 2017, 2018, 2019, or 2020 Smithsonian Science Education Center STEM Education Summit
  • Former participants’ colleagues who have contributed to the development and/or implementation of a previous summit team’s logic-model aimed at diversifying the K-12 STEM teaching workforce
  • Collaborators, stakeholders, or extended network such as district/school administrators or local Institutions of Higher Education who worked with a former team to achieve a goal on the team’s logic model
  • Former mentors or advisory committee members of the STEM Education Summit
  • Please note that you are invited as an individual, so you do not need to create a team to participate in this Alumni Workshop, although we encourage you to bring your former team members, colleagues, or any interested collaborators.

In this Alumni Workshop, you will:

  • Meet with the participants from the past STEM Education Summit attendees and their extended partners and build a network to diversify K-12 STEM teaching workforce;
  • Reflect and share the past year(s)’ experiences of progresses, struggles, resolutions and strategies in implementing action plans of diversifying K-12 STEM teaching workforce;
  • Learn about the concept of an Activity System with the perspective of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and identify the elements of an activity system that you are involved;
  • Understand the concept of Systems Change and discuss its spectrum;
  • Share thoughts and ideas about a shared vision and develop an overarching shared vision for diversifying K-12 STEM teaching workforce;  
  • And, discuss the next step that can be worked together in the future under the overarching shared vision of diversifying K-12 STEM teaching workforce.

 

Please direct your questions to Sherrell Lewis at LewisSM@si.edu. 

 

Registration

The deadline to register for this workshop has been extended to Friday, June 25, 2021.

Session Information

Thursday, July 8th, 2021 from 10am - 5pm Eastern Standard Time

10:00am - 11:00am| Welcome and Introduction,  This session will be an introduction to the STEM Education Summit Alumni Workshop and an opportunity for participants to hear vignettes about action plan implementation from past STEM Education Summit participants. 

11:15am - 12:45pm| Building Networks and Reflection: Struggles and Strategies, In this session, participants will consort with each other to share struggles and strategies in diversifying the K-12 STEM teaching workforce.

1:45pm - 3:15pm| Perspectives of Selected Institutions of Higher Education on K-12 STEM Teaching Workforce Diversity,  In this session, participants will be presented findings from the Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) survey that Howard University conducted. Participants will also meet with representatives from selected Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutions, Traditionally White Institutions, and Predominantly White Institutions to hear about the IHE's experiences and perspectives on enhancing K-12 STEM teaching workforce diversity and collaboration between Local Education Agencies (LEAs) and IHE's.   

3:30pm - 5:00pm| Internal/External Factors of Challenges in Implementation and Activity Systems, In this session, participants will identify the internal and external factors of challenges they have experienced with implementing their action plan by reflecting on their roles in their system and learning about an activity system through the perspective of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT).  

 

Friday, July 9th, 2021 from 10am - 4:30pm Eastern Standard Time

10:00am - 11:30am |Tensions and Strategies in The Activity System, In this session, participants will apply elements of the Activity System to their system, identify tensions between those elements and discuss strategies to resolve those tensions.  

11:45am - 12:45pm| Systems Change to Diversify the K-12 STEM Teaching Workforce, In this session, participants will learn about the Continuum of Systems Change. Participants will also share their thoughts about how to work together to proceed with systems change.

1:45pm - 3:15pm |Shared Vision, In this session, participants will work together to develop an overarching shared vision to enhance K-12 STEM Teaching workforce diversity.   

3:30pm - 4:30pm| Closure, Participants will share thoughts and ideas about how to move forward together to continue to diversify the K-12 STEM teaching workforce.    

Supported By

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This program is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)’s Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) Planning Grant # 2040784.