LAUNCH: Learning Communities
Travis York, APLU
Learning communities (LCs) are opportunities for students to actively participate in their education. Learning communities connect students with others of similar interests or backgrounds, enrich the learning process and promote greater student success. Creating a rich learning environment, learning communities emphasize relationships and community building among students, faculty and staff. LCs usually feature small group interaction, common intellectual experiences, and mentorship from peers and/or faculty. Students gain insight into the context for course material, develop a social network and support, are exposed to new experiences and develop their critical thinking skills.

Science Education Initiative
Stephanie Chasteen, University of Colorado at Boulder
Science Education Initiative (SEI) was a transformative initiative aimed at changing STEM teaching practices in university settings. The SEI was successfully implemented in two institutions (University of Colorado Boulder and The University of British Columbia) over a period of 10 years. The SEI centered on department-based Discipline-Based Education Specialists (DBESs), disciplinary experts with training in the science of teaching and learning who serve as catalysts of change within departments. The two SEIs have influenced the teaching of hundreds of faculty and the learning of tens of thousands of students per year by promoting the use of evidence-based teaching practices in STEM. These teaching practices are informed by research on teaching and learning, and often include some element of active learning. The lessons learned from the SEI are included in the Science Education Initiative Handbook, linked in this listing.

Enabling Faculty to Adopt Deliberative Democracy Pedagogy: a tool to broaden and engage
Gwen Shusterman, Portland State University
This project has been focused on catalyzing pedagogical innovation in introductory science courses. In particular, structures have been put in place to facilitate the implementation of the model of Deliberative Democracy Pedagogy (DDP). DDP is an active learning strategy, based on deliberative democratic models of citizen engagement in science policymaking. This integrative pedagogical approach, revises the delivery of conventional introductory science content around modules that engage students with current science policy controversies. Teaching teams of faculty and graduate students have attended summer pedagogical workshops, developed curricular modules, implemented the modules and participated in regular Communities of Practice meetings.

Water Network for Team STEM (WaNTS)
Travis York, APLU
Pacific Resources for Education and Learning (PREL), working with multiple partner agencies in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) and in Pohnpei (PNI) State of the Federated States of Micronesia, two rural and remote jurisdictions of the U.S.-Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI), proposes a two-year Design and Development Launch Pilot, Water Network for Team STEM, (WaNTS). WaNTS will nurture greater participation of Indigenous Pacific Islanders in STEM fields, facilitated by a collective impact model that employs the locally meaningful topic of clean drinking water as a vehicle for both K–12 engagement and broader community organization and action. Intergenerational and cross-jurisdiction networking will meld Western STEM with local ecological knowledge, empowering Inclusive Informal Science Learning Teams (IISLTs), Advisory Groups, and multiple, local, school-based Water Quality Management Teams (WQMTs), impacting thousands of residents. A repository of locally applicable educational materials will be created, maintained, and disseminated.

Health Sciences and Technology Academy (HSTA)
Travis York, APLU
The Health Sciences & Technology Academy increases the number of African American and other underrepresented students in West Virginia who pursue degrees in health sciences and science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, thereby increasing the number of health practitioners and advocates in the medically undeserved communities of West Virginia. HSTA helps West Virginia high school students succeed in health care and other STEM-based undergraduate and graduate degree programs. We marshal the efforts of hundreds of mentors―teachers, community members, and higher-education faculty, staff, and students―to create a framework that supports children facing social and financial challenges in obtaining a diploma and furthering their education.

NM EPSCoR Early Career Leadership Workshop
Travis York, APLU
The New Mexico EPSCoR Post Doc Leadership Workshop is an innovative 3-day intensive, residential program designed to enhance the professional skills of post-doctoral scholars in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The workshop uses interactive approaches to develop leadership skills that contribute to post doc career development and success.

STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT)
Laura Frost, Florida Gulf Coast University
A multidisciplinary STEM faculty professional development program called STEM Professional Academy to Reinvigorate the Culture of Teaching (SPARCT) is completing its second year at Florida Gulf Coast University. SPARCT includes a 36-hour summer STEM academy and a commitment to a faculty learning community during the subsequent academic year. We chronicled faculty development progress through video interviews with participants, student retention, interest, and confidence in SPARCT participant classes, and faculty feedback on programming.

College of Computing and Informatics (CCI) Business Partners
Maryalicia Johnson, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
UNC Charlotte has the largest number of IT students in the Carolina's and one of the largest in the nation through the College of Computing and Informatics (CCI). Currently, the CCI Business Partners program has nearly 50 companies that work hand-in-hand with the College to provide career prep and workforce readiness to the students. Students work with the Business Partner companies/employers to practice professional development skills, and the result is a robust IT talent pipeline to support the economic development of the whole region.

Teaching Rubric for Tenure Process
Chad Brassil, University of Nebraska at Lincoln
Developed a teaching rubric as a faculty in order to reduce variance among tenure cases.

Pre-Calculus and Calculus 1 Readiness Workshops
Tom Cheatham, Middle Tennessee State University
Students with gaps in their mathematics background are at risk of not succeeding in their upcoming math class. We have begun to do 3-day intensive math workshops the week before the students starts the class to help students fill some of the gaps that may prevent them from succeeding in the course. These workshops have proven to be an inexpensive way to help at-risk students succeed. Students who have previously taken the course, those with poor math ACT scores, students who have not taken math in several years, and others are invited to participate for free. They get to know other students who are in the same boat as they are in and a professor (6 hours per day for 3 days). They fill some gaps and learn that you can study math for a long period of time without dying. Data from the first few semesters is promising.