Pre-Conference Workshops
Sunday, February 9, 2025
Public Engagement with Science - EPICC Model|12:00-2:30pm - Lantana
The Gaskins Foundation's "Empowering Parents in Community Churches" project aims to enhance public engagement with science by providing parents with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to support their children's scientific curiosity and education. This workshop is tailored for academicians interested in implementing similar initiatives in local churches and community centers. By leveraging these trusted community settings, academicians can create a comfortable and collaborative space for learning and discussion, thereby fostering greater scientific literacy and engagement. By the end of this workshop, participants will have strategies and tools needed to effectively engage parents and children in science education within community settings. More
With more than 150 ways to approach an evaluation, the task can be extremely daunting and leave you wondering if you are collecting the best data in the most impactful way. This workshop cuts through the "evaluation noise" to help you design a robust evaluation that includes timely, purposeful, and relevant information and help to make informed decisions that support continuous improvement and inform impact. At the end of this workshop, participants will (a) understand the difference and relationship between evaluation and research, (b) understand how to respond to the 5 anchoring questions that support the design of a robust evaluation plan; (c) understand how evaluation has roots in multiple disciplines that inform data collection strategies and processes; and (d) understand how to realize data results that inform both the implementation of the project being evaluated and provide evidence that informs the extent to which the project's goals and objectives were met. Finally, participants will walk away with a draft evaluation plan that can be implemented in their next project.
Reimagining Post-Secondary Engineering Education for Rural and Low-Income Students | 12:30-2:30pm - Villa
This workshop will engage attendees in intentional discussion and reimagination of how current practices around recruitment, transitions into post-secondary engineering, and experiences in engineering programs impact students from rural and/or low-income backgrounds, particularly students with differing access to resources for academic preparation. With the specific lenses of the workshop team’s focus on rural students and low-income students, we seek to highlight the various aspects of education that impact students’ participation in post-secondary engineering. As a result, we hope to engage participants in a discussion about how existing practices in their classrooms and programs, for example, can impact students from rural and/or low-income backgrounds as they progress through engineering programs. More