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.

LAUNCH: Undergraduate Research
Travis York, APLU
LAUNCH is an acronym that stands for Learning Communities (L), Academic Excellence (A), Undergraduate Research (U), National Fellowships (N), Capstones (C), and Honors (H). LAUNCH is a unit of Undergraduate Studies housed in Academic Affairs under the Provost at Texas A&M University. LAUNCH: UGR promotes, coordinates, creates, and assesses undergraduate programs involving creative scholarship, inquiry, and research in all academic disciplines at Texas A&M. The programs serves as an introduction for first generation, low income, and/or under-represented students in STEM research through first year research teams, summer research programs, research presentations, and research and graduate program informationals.

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.

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.

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.

Systemic Transformation of Education through Evidence-based Reform (STEER)
Gerry Meisels, University of South Florida
STEER seeks to create a culture that reflects a strong balance between teaching and research, and values both. STEER promotes the adoption of evidence-based teaching practices in all science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses, especially in the large-enrollment gateway courses. To facilitate systemic change, the University of South Florida (USF) and Hillsborough Community College (HCC) are partnering to offer professional development for faculty and strengthening coordinated student advising, because the number of STEM community college students transferring to USF exceeds the number who began their studies at USF. STEER's comprehensive approach also addresses other factors that may influence students' academic experiences, such as graduate teaching assistant (GTA) training, student advising, course alignment, institutional policies related to teaching, and physical infrastructure such as classroom configuration. This effort is supported in part by the National Science Foundation, grant number DUE1525574.

The Peer Learning Association
Jean Heitz, University of Wisconsin-Madison
The Peer Learning Association (PLA) is a registered student organization and works with interested faculty in development of peer learning programs tailored to the needs of the students in their courses.

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.