The Science Education Resource Center (SERC) at Carleton College is a grant-funded office of professionals, including educators, researchers, and technical specialists working to improve teaching and learning outcomes through community organization, resource creation, evaluation, and project facilitation. Since 2002, we have provided facilitation and infrastructure for the community to share strong teaching, department, and institutional resources and practices in measurable ways. Through collaborations with leaders and participants from more than 1,400 institutions of higher education, as well as K-12 and informal educators, and industry partners, we have helped build one of the world's largest collections of pedagogic resources.

The competencies, processes, and infrastructure behind our SERC approach is grounded in theory-based principles including: social interaction is central to learning (e.g. situated learning); participants have valuable expertise, something specific they are trying to improve, and limited time (e.g. adult learning); outcomes must align with a program design (e.g. backwards design); and the type and context of change informs strategy (e.g. organizational change theory), among others. We operationalize these theories through deliberate facilitation, integrated program management, flexible technical systems (Serckit), and responsive evaluation cycles. This infrastructure maintains a collective memory that helps subsequent projects leverage past learning rather than reinventing the wheel.

Importantly, this approach was not generated in isolation, as SERC's strategies are continuously informed, challenged, and enriched by the feedback of our extensive network of individual, institutional, and community partners. By working alongside diverse collaborators, we have developed a reflective practice that maximizes the value of shared time, embraces uncertainty, and maintains an enduring record of what works.

This poster highlights our SERC experience as a flexible case study for educational researchers and instructors looking to increase their own project impacts. Join us to explore SERC examples, share your own strategies, and discuss how we can collectively advance science education.