2016 Pan-REU PI Workshop: Leveraging Excellence Through Collaboration Across REU Programs, April 28-30, 2016, Arlington, VA

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Wisconsin-Madison proposes to organize a workshop for NSF REU Site Principal Investigators (PIs) from all disciplines. This award is supported by Directorates for Biological Sciences (BIO), Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE), Education and Human Resources (EHR), Engineering (ENG), Geosciences (GEO), Mathematics and Physical Sciences (MPS), and Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE). The goal of the 2016 Pan-REU PI workshop is to leverage best practices from all disciplines and promote collaboration. The meeting will involve approximately 80 PIs from across the REU community representing the full diversity in terms of discipline, type of institution, and demographics. These PIs will be nominated by the NSF program officers responsible for REU programs in each directorate. A smaller group of PI leaders reflecting the diversity of the REU program will form a Steering Committee to develop the meeting agenda. One predetermined agenda item is to discuss an online student assessment survey, which has been developed specifically for NSF REU programs. This survey will provide significant cost savings and allow analysis of student training outcomes within a program and across programs. The Pan-REU PI workshop is structured to provide both large group settings for dissemination of key information, such as the online student assessment survey, and to facilitate sharing of best practices and promote collaboration in small group and networking sessions. The workshop will allow all disciplines to provide input in the design and use of the student assessment tool, which would be available to any PI of an REU Site program. The tool, when properly implemented, will result in significant savings to the programs. In addition, the aggregate data resulting from the collective use of the tool can be very useful for evaluation researchers. The workshop materials and findings will be reported to NSF and made available to the entire REU community. More information is available by contacting the PI, Dr. Janet Branchaw at branchaw@wisc.edu.