Polar STEAM
Polar STEAM, which stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math, integrates and enhances two long-standing National Science Foundation (NSF) programs: the Polar Educators program and the Antarctic Artists and Writers program and facilitates virtual and deployment collaborations with scientists conducting research in the polar regions. The external evaluation of project activities are led by the SERC Evaluation Team, using a mixed-methods approach to conduct a developmental evaluation that provides rapid feedback to support data-driven innovation (Patton et al., 2016), and an outcomes evaluation to monitor progress towards the stated project outcomes.

NC-FEW
NC-Few is community and hub to support the emergence of interdisciplinary educational efforts focused on food, energy, and water systems in a wide array of educational contexts. SERC is working with NC-FEW leadership in developing virtual and in-person events and evaluating the project's impact and outcomes.

A Civil Action - The Woburn Toxic Trial
This project developed web-based curricular materials investigating the events in Woburn, MA that inspired the movie A Civil Action. Developed from a popular mock-trial course at Ohio State University, the site consists of a series of educational modules that students work through culminating in a mock trial. SERC designed the overall structure of the website and supported the leaders in transitioning a locally taught course into a model and resource for others.

Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub
SERC serves as the external evaluator for the MACH project. The "wicked problem" that climate change poses to coastal communities requires many great minds working alongside local residents, officials, and professionals to better understand the options available to decrease their risk. To assist with these types of complex decisions, Rutgers University and 12 other institutions created the Megalopolitan Coastal Transformation Hub, or MACH (pronounced 'mock'). MACH is a part of a network of research hubs, located around the country, funded through the National Science Foundation's Coastlines and People (CoPe) program. MACH's mission is to support decision making to manage climate-change-related risks through research focused at the intersection of natural and human systems. These collaborations are rooted in core principles regarding equitable community participation in and co-production of climate solutions. (Adapted from coastalhub.org)

Spatial Thinking Workbook
The Spatial Thinking Workbook project is focused on improving spatial skills in upper-division undergraduate geoscience courses. SERC was involved in the leadership of this project and the development of its teaching activities and spatial learning assessments.

Expanding HBCU Pathways for Geoscience Education
The GP-IMPACT: Expanding HBCU Pathways for Geoscience Education aims to identify the challenges and opportunities related to improving minority access to the geosciences across educational levels and specifically at HBCUs. SERC supported the completion of the qualitative study of geoscience efforts at participating HBCUs and developing and hosting the website which holds the results.

Improving Undergraduate Scientific Explanations: Exploring the Role of Data Literacy
The Improving Undergraduate Scientific Explanations: Exploring the Role of Data Literacy Skills in Scientific Reasoning project at Rider University is supported by an NSF IUSE grant (#2021347) awarded to Kathleen Browne in 2020. The PIs investigate whether students who participate in courses that use data sets from the NSF-funded Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) and provide instruction in the use of "DCER" (i.e., Data Description-Claim-Evidence-Reasoning) are able to provide better explanations of scientific observations than those in a comparison group and perform better on assessments of scientific reasoning and data literacy.The SERC evaluation team consulted on the statistical analysis and conducted a process evaluation using artifact review and interviews.

GETSI
The GETSI teaching materials feature geodetic data and quantitative skills applied to societally important issues (climate change, natural hazards, water resources, environmental management) for introductory and majors-level courses. SERC's role includes website hosting, collaborating on website and professional development design, student assessment, and program evaluation.

BASICS
The Business And Science: Integrated Curriculum for Sustainability (BASICS) team developed and pilot-tested transdisciplinary curricular modules and discipline-specific activities for undergraduate students that combine STEM, business, and other fields of knowledge, with a focus on the wicked problems of sustainability in a global economy. SERC leads the work on student assessment that measures student learning and attitudinal changes related to the BASICS curriculum and leads the work on disseminating the curriculum via the website.

Nanotechnology in STEM
Through the NNCI, the Nanotechnology in STEM website is hosted on SERC in order to help alleviate the lack of nanotechnology resources in both smaller academic institutions, as well as in the small to medium size commercial sector. SERC has supported this project by providing workshop development and implementation expertise and assessing the ways in which the website meets stakeholders' needs and expectations, the extent to which the project outcomes are being realized.