SENCER Phase III

Harrisburg University Of Science And Technology, The, Harrisburg PA

Investigators

Abstract

In this one-year project, the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement is undertaking a coordinated set of activities to achieve three goals for sustaining SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities) for another year and assist in its effort to become a self-sustaining enterprise. The first goal is to secure and extend benefits of the core SENCER faculty development program to current and newcomer cohorts of the STEM education reform community through the summer of 2012. Project elements supporting this goal are supervision of the completion of 39 SENCER-supported small implementation awards, continued provision of key core project elements (an e-newsletter, an on-line journal, the SENCER web site and digital library, the leadership fellows program, and house call consultations), planning the SENCER Summer Institute 2012, and continued administrative coordination for each of the six regional SENCER Centers for Innovation. The second goal is to complete the analysis of several assessment and evaluation initiatives in order to guide future program initiatives. This is work is being done by an evaluation consultant and the SENCER Assessment Team working with other program staff and associates. Project elements are completion of the analysis of faculty surveys (including report preparation for publication), comparison of the survey findings with new findings from applications of the revised SENCER-SALG evaluation tool now in use on some campuses as well as campus reports from sub-awardees, and evaluation of the results of applications of a revised rubric (Rubric 2.0) to new SENCER courses (to assess depth and degree of reform elements within individual courses). The third goal is to support the planning process designed to transition to independence from NSF support for SENCER core program operations.