GEO Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity Ideas Lab

American Society For Engineering Education, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

As articulated in numerous reports from the President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST) and the National Research Council, broadening participation of traditionally underrepresented minorities in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines is a high priority for the Nation in that it contributes to an innovative and productive research enterprise. Although progress is being made in achieving greater diversity within some STEM communities, it has been challenging to scale up the use of effective practices for increasing diversity in order to realize greater impact at the national level. To address this challenge, NSF has launched a new NSF-wide FY 2016 initiative called "Inclusion Across the Nation of Communities of Learners that have been Underrepresented for Diversity in Engineering and Science" (NSF INCLUDES). The Directorate for Geosciences (GEO) is contributing to the NSF INCLUDES initiative through the GEO Opportunities for Leadership in Diversity (GOLD) program, which is using the Ideas Lab mechanism to create innovate, interdisciplinary approaches for building a national network of geoscientists who can help to advance NSF's broadening participation goals and objectives. Participants in the Ideas Lab are being recruited from communities with expertise in the geosciences, social-psychology, institutional transformation, broadening participation research, and research on leadership development. The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), in collaboration with Knowinnovation, Inc. (KI), is supporting the GOLD program by providing travel and logistical support for the GOLD Ideas Lab (being held March 20-24, 2016) and conducting research on the utility and benefits of the Ideas Lab approach for developing and soliciting NSF proposals. The project builds on preliminary research conducted during the implementation of three Ideas Labs offered in FY 2014 in conjunction with the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) program, which identified three key parameters that can influence the ultimate success of Ideas Labs for developing creative new ideas. The research to be undertaken through this EAGER award during the GOLD Ideas Lab will help to confirm or clarify these preliminary findings. The Ideas Lab process is a fairly new mechanism for generation of proposals to NSF; as such, the findings of this participatory action research study will help to identify the circumstances under which use of the Ideas Lab mechanism is most beneficial.