1. MRSEC Education Directors Group Report NSF MRSEC Directors Meeting Alexandria, VA October 18, 2018
Anne Lynn Gillian-Daniel
MRSEC Education Directors Group Chair
Education Director of the Wisconsin MRSEC

2. 2018 Education Directors Meeting
Location: NYU MRSEC Theme: Broadening Participation in STEM
Goals:
Community building and networking
Update committees – goals and membership
Share efforts and challenges around broadening participation at all levels
Education Directors group is comprised of the education/outreach directors from all the MRSECs and we meet annual to network and share best practices as well as engaging in joint projects between meetings.

3. Education Directors Group Vision
The MRSEC Education Directors are:
a nationally recognized, mutually supportive, collaborative network of education professionals, who
work closely with world-renowned materials researchers to positively impact STEM education at local and national levels, and
create opportunities to broaden participation by engaging people from all backgrounds in the field of materials research.

4. New Education Group Committees
Overarching Goal: Broadening Participation in STEM
Materials Next Generation Committee - coordinate education and outreach activities across MRSECs (especially RET, K-12, and public outreach activities) and promote communication between MRSECs to identify best practices and foster the development of multi-site programs to increase public awareness of and interest in STEM. Members - Brian Korgel (U. Texas – Austin) – Chair, Anique Olivier- Mason (Brandeis), Dan Steinberg (Princeton), Risa Hartman (U. Texas - Austin), Shaun Taylor (Washington), Rebecca Lai (U. Nebraska – Lincoln), Nev Singhota (Cornell)

5. New Education Group Committees
Overarching Goal: Broadening Participation in STEM
Broadening Participation: Undergraduate Programs - utilize the collective resources of all MRSECs to increase the participation of URM undergraduates in research by compiling a database of MRSEC/PREM participants and a list of best practices from all centers. Members - Phil Engen (U. Minnesota) – Chair, Kathryn Hollar (Harvard), Christine Morrow (Colorado), Jeff DeMars / Emily Ford (Columbia), Pam Pena Martin (U. Illinois), Tiffany Mathews (Penn State)
-Tasks
1. Create a database of MRSEC/PREM participants
a. allow MRSECs to contact and recruit (for undergraduate and graduate programs) from participant pools of all MRSEC and PREM programs
b. Encourage students to seek multiple research opportunities as undergraduates
c. make student interest form available to conference committee to maintain a consistent contact database available to all MRSECs
2. Compile best practices in undergraduate programs to allow all MRSECs to learn from the successes of other centers
a. Recruitment, Application system, etc
b. Program activities- research, professional development, social
3. Create MRSEC "page at glance" sheet of centers, research focus, undergraduate majors who should consider opportunities
- to allow MRSEC education staff and conference booth staff to direct interested students to opportunities of specific interest to them

6. New Education Group Committees
Overarching Goal: Broadening Participation in STEM
Conference Connections Committee (i.e. Exhibit Booth Committee) – promote the visibility and awareness of MRSEC programs (such as REU), member university graduate programs, user facilities, and research areas by organizing booths and workshops at national conferences. Members - Kristin Dreyer (Penn State) – Chair, Dotti Pak (UCSB), Kathleen Stair (Northwestern), Michelle McCombs (OSU), Eileen Shu (U. Chicago), Susan Rosevear (MIT)

7. Meeting Focus: Broadening Participation
Education Directors Meeting, Sept , 2018
“Where are all the student of color in research? Utilizing existing resources”
Speaker - Anne Ortega, Senior Director of pre-college programs at NYU
Broadening Participation Program Highlights
Goal
Target Audience
Challenges

8. Group Specific Recruitment Efforts
Middle School Science Camp – U. Penn
American Indian Outreach – U. Minnesota
Dia de la Ciencia – Princeton
Blind/Low Vision STEM Extension – Penn State
Science at the Food Pantry – U. Wisconsin-Madison
U. Minnesota
Phil Engen (U. Minn) three programs that focus upon increasing participation of American Indian students in STEM; focus on reaching middle and high school students who have not yet decided upon STEM as a possible pursuit; (1) 1 day exposure/interest program (2) 5 day summer program for 11-12th graders (2) 10 week UG summer research program
Dan Steinberg nd annual Dia de la Ciencia: effort to bridge the gap between the Hispanic/latinx and white communities and get more diverse representation at successful science outreach events
STEM Extension to an existing 3-week college transition program called Summer Academy that is held here at the University Park campus each summer for college-bound high school students who are BLV. Summer Academy is hosted by BBVS (OVR) and PaTTAN (Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) in the Bureau of Special Education). It prepares students to successfully navigate life as an independent college student.
Middle School Science Camp for Deaf Students.
U. Penn
UW-Madison
Penn State
Princeton

9. Group Specific Recruitment Efforts
Women’s Technology Program – MIT
Conference for Undergrad Women in Physical Sciences – UNL
Math & Science Academy Internships – U. Chicago
Engineering the Next Generation – Columbia
Susan Rosevear (MIT) – Women’s Technology Program – 4 week residential program for 20 girls – rising HS seniors, competitive (criteria – high performing students who do not yet know what they want to do); strong female role model philosophy; MRSEC does an engineering design project and competition (660 participants thus far; 85% have chosen college majors in STEM)
Rebecca Lei (U of Nebraska) – 10th annual Conference for Undergrad Women in Physical Sciences (WoPhyS); 3 days, more than 100 attendees – growing!; Goal – more women into STEM grad programs; expensive, all paid to accepted applicants – so $ obtained from multiple sources in addition to MRSEC; connected to many other MRSEC programs; ask MRSECs to promote to UG and REU participants
Eileen Shu (U of Chicago) – Lindblom Math & Science Academy Internships; 7 week summer internships, not residential; recruited at colloquium on materials science at the school; teacher involvement and summer visits
Anne Lynn (U of Wisconsin – Madison) – Science Outreach at Local Food Pantry; those who go to the Pantry have two long waits, often bringing children along; years of building the relationship with the Pantry staff; also trying to create openness and willingness to attend campus event (this population often feels separated from the campus and its offerings, etc.); kids ages vary greatly, nice opportunity for parent/child interactions
Columbia
MIT
U. Chicago
UNL

10. Community Recruitment Efforts
Materials Ambassadors – U. Washington
Scientific Thinkers – Ohio State
K-5 RET Program – U. Texas-Austin
BioBus – NYU
NYU
Shaun Taylor (Washington) – Materials Ambassadors (multiple options for MRSEC members to get involved in outreach, from development of activities and content to implementation and volunteering/training/mentoring)
Michelle McCombes (Ohio State) – Scientific Thinkers program at the Ohio State University; Scientific Thinkers is a partnership between OSU and Columbus Elementary Schools. Through the Scientific Thinkers™ program, undergraduate and graduate students from OSU STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) departments work with the first through fifth-grade science and mathematics teachers at the elementary schools to develop and teach inquiry-based science lessons to first through fifth-grade students
Jeff DeMars (Columbia) – Engineering the Next Generation: HS Summer Research Program; targeted to students from three local partner schools (URM focus); non-residential; 6 weeks, 15 students; challenges to getting them prepared if their skills are weak for research; stipends paid.
Risa Hartman (U of Texas – Austin) – K-5 RET program; targets K-5 Leadership teachers and those from Title 1 and Dual Language schools; 7 weeks on site in summer doing research and creating curriculum; expectation that teachers do follow-up work during the academic year; Note: creation of the RET Advisory Board (Other programs; (1) science programming with the deaf and blind communities locally; (2) artists in residency program)
NYU – BioBus travels around NY to bring science into classrooms focus on underserved students.
U. Washington
Ohio State
UT-Austin

11. Recruitment Products
STEM Film: A Media Approach – U. Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Modules for the Next Generation Science Standards – Cornell
SciLinker.com – Brandeis
Materials Science Exhibit – Northwestern
Anique Olivier-Mason (Brandeis) – making connections between science and the public via a national free website (SciLinkr.com) with the goal of creating (facilitating introductions; documenting/recording keeping/reporting evidence of the work that they do
(Northwester) REU “Plus” program (staying beyond the summer to take classes at Northwestern that fulfill their graduation credits at home institution; tuition wavers from Provost office) - Materials Science Exhibit (museum partnership with the Museum of Science and Industry; now at the Chicago O’Hare airport); hopefully to be placed in the Chicago Public Library
Nev Singhota (Cornell) – Designing Modules for Next Generation Science Standards; partnership between teachers and MRSEC grads/faculty to create more authentic “doing science”; developed in iterations through pilot efforts in classrooms and teacher workshops; these activities (materials/supplies/lesson plans) become available to teachers (free loan) via the on-line CCMR Lending Library of Experiments;
Pamela Martin (U of Illinois) – media approach; multiple video episodes (scripted stories); to be released later this fall; professionally produced with actors; story lines generated/inspired by MRSEC grad/faculty interviews
Brandeis
Northwestern
Cornell
UIUC

12. Retention Efforts
PREM partnerships – UCSB Navajo Technical College Partnership – Harvard Pathway to the Workforce – U. Colorado
Dotti Pak (UC Santa Barbara) – PREM partnerships with UTEP and Jackson State; recent renewal of both – due to successful partnerships (key elements: students participate with REU program at USCB; faculty that serve on thesis committees; UTEP-UCSB undergrad student intern exchange in both directions!; visits in both directions!; outreach participation by UCSB at PREM institution) Note: UCSB has recently been named a MSI – so these programs are helping UCSB to be a better institution serving its own large population
Kathryn Hollar (Harvard) – Multiple programs and efforts to reach diverse, URM pipelines by collaborating with URM institutions – Bunker Hill Community College, Navajo Technical College ; special committee of the MRSEC helped to lead a special committee where URM applicants get a second read!!
Harvard
UCSB

13. Joint Retention Efforts
Pathway to the Workforce – a Workshop in Leadership, Communication, and Professional Competencies for NSF MRSEC/PREM students and postdocs U. Colorado and UCSB Partnership UCSB, Aug , 2019 Applications open Jan – all expenses covered Contact
NAS report, Graduate STEM Education for the 21st Century, recommends “Students should encounter a variety of points of view about the nature, scope and substance of the scientific enterprise and about the relationships between science, engineering and society. They should be encouraged to understand and grapple with difference of opinion, experiences and ideas.”
training of graduate students and post-docs to facilitate round-table discussions and team-based activities. The goal of these activities is to promote collaboration and stimulate convergence and merging of ideas of the participants with an organized team-based activity about selected grand challenges of today .
Entrepreneur Boot Camp – Train participants using mini-lectures on critical components of a business plan such as market analysis, financial projections, intellectual property, sales strategies, manufacturing, and management
Christine Morrow (U of Colorado) – Pathway to the Workforce; Professional Development workshop based upon recent iSuperSeed and NAAS recommendations... Partnership with UCSB; ask MRSEC’s to promote for PD, grad, UG applicants – three days for PD and Grad’s first (train the trainer model)... UG come in for the last part (to be trained) – all expenses paid to accepted applicants (first year, MRSEC’s only; attendees per year)

14. Joint Retention Efforts
National Research Mentoring Network
Research Mentor Training (RMT)
Developed for in-person, mentoring relationships in research
Community learning and case studies
MRSEC members at multiple institutions have attended trainings
Wisconsin MRSEC – master facilitators
For more information contact:

15. MRSEC at the SACNAS Meetings
Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Students in Science
Goal: To inform URM undergraduates about the value of REUs and graduate programs at universities with MRSEC programs.
2015 Washington, DC - 13 MRSEC Ed. Director volunteers, >38 students signed up MRSEC also organized a student panel workshop.
2016 Long Beach, CA - 5 MRSEC Ed. Director volunteers, >100 students signed up
Goal: Sponsor a booth at the SACNAS meeting and looking at other organizations for URM students – NESBE, etc. Due to funding constraints, we host booths at meetings that Ed. Directors are already attending because travel costs are incurred by the individual MRSECs

16. MRSEC at MRS and APS
Goal: To promote the MRSEC program and the value of being part of a multidisciplinary research center.
Booths staffed by MRSEC faculty and students attending the meetings.
APS March Meeting 2017
MRS Fall 2017
APS March Meeting 2018
Working towards annual presence at the meetings

17. Representando excelentes universidades en los Estados Unidos
MRSEC at IMRC
Representando excelentes universidades en los Estados Unidos
Goal: To increase our international visibility and help inform Mexican students/others about potential opportunities in the U.S. 
Talked to >250 people at 2018 meeting – official IMRC language is English
Prospective students learned that MSE graduate study in U.S. provides stipend/tuition
Established scientists interested in collaborations & postdocs
Education symposium (invited speaker - Dan Dahlberg, MN MRSEC)
=Meeting high achieving students at IMRC; intense competition for funding to attend
Vale la pena!!!

18. IGEN: Inclusive Graduate Education Network
APS Bridge Program: An effort to increase the number of physics PhDs awarded to URM students by providing coursework, research experiences, and substantial mentoring for students who did not apply or were not admitted to graduate school.
IGEN Goal: Expand the best practices of the APS Bridge Program to MSE (among other disciplines) graduate programs.
MRS is creating a Disciplinary Advisory Board (DAB) - MRSEC members encouraged to volunteer.
For more information: Michele Feder

19. MRSEC Education Directors Group
Highly collaborative and mutually supportive
Work to broaden participation and improve STEM education
Annual meeting to network and share best practices
Joint projects - workshops, booths, social media