Creative Scientific Inquiry Experiences
Ellene Tratras Contis, Eastern Michigan University
The Creative Scientific Inquiry Experience (CSIE) is a STEM-related program funded by the U.S. Department of Education that connects students with faculty and with community projects through an integrated science curriculum. We specialize in creating learning experiences for students in STEM fields through innovative courses and student events. Our courses are 1-2 credit hours, and faculty work with community partners to develop coursework that allows students to work on real-world problems.

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.

Crossing Boundaries for STEM Teaching through Mini-Conferences
Shande King, The University of Tennessee
Partnering with other STEM faculty members across the university campus, the our center hosted their first mini-conference, open for K-12 STEM educators as well as university faculty members, researchers, and other community outreach organizations. In this abbreviated PechaKucha-style conference, speakers from all university STEM and education departments, local K-12 schools, and other local STEM organizations presented different research highlighting educational practices that focused on advancing K-12 and undergraduate student engagement and inquiry into STEM fields. Concurrent sessions of 10 minutes allowed various departments and other education representatives to highlight their specific fields of interest, followed brief question-and-answer sessions. Sessions were grouped according to similar themes, and upon the completion of each theme's presentations, connections were made to underline the practices already advancing STEM education. Further, presenters and attendees provided helpful feedback for continued improvement in STEM education, and in this comfortable environment, they exchanged information for future collaboration.

STEMcoding project
Chris Orban, Ohio State University-Main Campus
Groups like code.org have revolutionized computer science education for the elementary school and junior high levels. But for the most part the revolution has not yet reached high-school STEM courses like physics, math and chemistry. The STEMcoding project exists to re-imagine introductory STEM courses with computer science in mind. Many schools are unable to offer computer science, but they may have a physics, or chemistry or math teacher who could integrate coding into some part of their course if there was coding content that was well aligned with the learning objectives of that course.

Early College High School and STEM Academy: Strategies for Breaking the Generational Poverty Cycle in Rural America
Gary E. Briers, Texas A & M University
School-wide Early College--for ALL high school students at Roscoe Collegiate ISD (RCISD)--and STEM Academy designation have led to four private-public partnerships in STEM-related enterprises. More than 90% of RCISD's seniors complete an associate of science degree at high school graduation. Simultaneously, students earn industry-recognized certification in STEM fields as FAA-licensed UAV pilots, veterinary assistants, health care workers, welders, and/or computer technicians/network administrators. Because students earn a college parallel associate degree (versus an associate of applied science"often considered a "terminal degree"), graduates can and do continue to matriculate into STEM majors for baccalaureate degrees. These results are in a public school district with fewer than 30 graduates annually in a rural community of fewer than 2,000 residents. Two additional goals remain to be achieved: 90% of those associate degree/high school diploma recipients will earn baccalaureate degrees and 90% of those will earn a graduate or professional degree.

Developing and implementing institution data dashboards to drive course transformation
Shanna Shaked, University of California-Los Angeles
We are working with institutional research folks, deans and other interested faculty to develop and implement institutional data dashboards that can be used to foster conversations and interventions to improve teaching.

UA-AAU STEM Collaborative Learning Spaces Project
Lisa Elfring, The University of Arizona
The Collaborative Learning Spaces Project (CLSP), an extension of the UA AAU Undergraduate STEM Education Project, is a university-wide collaborative effort at the University of Arizona to develop classroom environments that are more suitable for active learning pedagogies than traditional lecture halls. Instructors and their teaching teams who are using these rooms receive training and participate in faculty learning communities (FLCs) to explore best practices and innovative ideas for use of these spaces.

BreakThru: The Georgia STEM Accessibility Alliance (GSAA)
Nathan W. Moon, Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
BreakThru is a five-year National Science Foundation (NSF) funded project to broaden the participation of students with disabilities in secondary and postsecondary STEM education.

Windows on the Inquiry Classroom
Christopher Bauer, University of New Hampshire-Main Campus
The project is a comprehensive documentation of an inquiry-based course, a college-level interdisciplinary exploration of the nature of heat, temperature, and energy (Fire and Ice). The door to this classroom is open for observations at any time for teachers, teacher educators, professional developers, researchers, and science learners. The entire course is available at the University of New Hampshire Scholars Repository: https://scholars.unh.edu/bauer. All 27 class sessions are captured in 10-minute video segments from four angles, including instructor and student teams. All course documents are also available: daily agenda, student team instructions and work products, and hands-on activity procedures. There are behind-the-curtain stories as well: instructor previews and debriefing for each class, graduate interns reviewing every class, student focus groups, and videos about course design process.

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.