2018 NC-FEW Planning Conference

On May 22-23 of 2018, the two-day, national, invited Innovating Teaching and Learning in the Food-Energy-Water-Nexus: Toward a National Collaborative for Food, Energy, & Water Systems Education (NC-FEW) conference was held in the Washington, D.C. metro area at the Virginia Tech Executive Briefing Center.The conference was funded through the USDA-NIFA Higher Education Challenge grant program, APLU's Network of STEM Education Centers Research Action Cluster grant program, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Agricultural Research Division, and Virginia Tech in the National Capital Region.  The program included 1) keynote talks by experts, 2) time for networking, 3) facilitated group discussions/workshops, and 4) an interactive poster session.  Nearly 50 conference participants representing over 40 institutions had opportunities to share their research and engage with colleagues from a diverse array of disciplinary backgrounds (education, STEM disciplines, agriculture, natural resources) to articulate and shape discourse around a systemic approach to FEW-Nexus education and education research. Invited speakers, including INFEWS program officers Rachel Melnick (formerly with USDA-NIFA) and Tom Torgersen (NSF), Kacy Redd (APLU/NSEC), and Jeff Weld (White House Office of Science and Technology Policy).  The conference planning committee was comprised of current NC-FEW Co-PIs and personnel, Cory Forbes, Hannah Scherer, Hui-Hui Wang, and Nicole Sintov, and Christine Li, as well as NCDC231 Committee member Kelly Millenbah.  The work undertaken as this conference, as well as deliverables generated by conference participants, contributed directly to the now-funded NSF INFEWS RCN proposal supporting NC-FEW.  A special thanks to Lindsay Augustyn from the UNL Center for Science, Math, and Computer Education (CSMCE) for helping coordinate and facilitate the conference.