Award Abstract # 1022895
Collaborative Research: Chemistry Coalitions, Workshops and Communities of Scholars

NSF Org: DUE
Division Of Undergraduate Education
Recipient: GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY RESEARCH FOUNDATION INC
Initial Amendment Date: May 13, 2011
Latest Amendment Date: March 7, 2018
Award Number: 1022895
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Dawn Rickey
drickey@nsf.gov
 (703)292-4674
DUE
 Division Of Undergraduate Education
EDU
 Directorate for STEM Education
Start Date: June 1, 2011
End Date: May 31, 2019 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $2,829,703.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $2,829,703.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2011 = $1,155,485.00
FY 2013 = $562,137.00

FY 2014 = $1,112,081.00
History of Investigator:
  • Jerry Smith (Principal Investigator)
    jcsmith@gsu.edu
  • Patricia Hill (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: Georgia State University Research Foundation, Inc.
58 EDGEWOOD AVE NE
ATLANTA
GA  US  30303-2921
(404)413-3570
Sponsor Congressional District: 05
Primary Place of Performance: Georgia State University
33 GILMER ST SE
ATLANTA
GA  US  30303-3044
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
05
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): MNS7B9CVKDN7
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): TUES-Type 3 Project
Primary Program Source: 04001112DB NSF Education & Human Resource
04001314DB NSF Education & Human Resource

04001415DB NSF Education & Human Resource
Program Reference Code(s): 9178, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 751200
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.076

ABSTRACT

The goal of this project is to create a series of topical and sustainable Faculty Learning Communities. The project will make use of many components developed by the previous Center for Workshops in the Chemical Sciences NSF-CCLI project. Based, in part, on a series of 45 workshops held at 25 consortium institutions, the project is providing faculty members with numerous opportunities to take leadership roles and to develop mentoring partnerships and collaborations. The workshops provide participants with high quality curricular materials to enhance their own teaching and to equip them to become active in extensive post-workshop activities. Participants are engaged as presenters of new workshops, mini-workshops and outreach activities, and as developers/moderators of topical community websites using a common web infrastructure. The project includes mini-grants to support faculty members in curriculum revision and outreach. A multifaceted evaluation program provides formative and summative assessments that extend to the individual student learning level, and allow the overall project to respond to the needs of individual participants within the developing communities in order to ensure the development, sharing and adoption of educational products at a broad set of institutions.
Intellectual Merit. The goal of the project is to provide significant opportunities for faculty development and thereby enhance student learning. While workshops are an effective mechanism for faculty development, their impact is limited if considered in isolation. Accordingly, the project makes use of extensive post-workshop engagement in the formulation of communities of scholars. A series of five-day workshops serves as one entrée to these communities, and a series of post-workshop activities insures extended engagement of participants at a variety of different levels. The project provides resources to support new dissemination initiatives through partnerships with other STEM education efforts. The selection of topics and level of workshops presentations are driven by participant needs, established by a comprehensive evaluation program and with input from an Advisory Committee.
Broader Impact. Improvement in education in the chemical sciences is vital to maintaining the scientific foundation of the nation. Faculty development and training are important endeavors in continuous improvement of student learning and classroom experiences. Workshops are presented by faculty at a wide variety of institutions, including research universities, predominantly undergraduate institutions, and, for the first time, community colleges. The project is hosting 900 participants in workshops in 2011-2015, another 900 (or more) in outreach activities, and many others through web-based communities. A mature recruitment process allows the project to attract a diverse set of participants, with specific initiatives to recruit minority faculty members and instructors at community colleges. By the end of the five-year program, the network of instructors who have used workshop materials is expected to have had an impact on more than 180,000 students.

PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT

Disclaimer

This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.

The Program entitled Chemistry Collaborations Workshops, and Communities of Scholars  (CCWCS) has developed and run some 191 diverse workshops with the goal of improving instruction in chemistry, broadly defined, primarily at the undergraduate level.  It is estimated that 500,000 students were or will be impacted over the support period of this award or previous such awards that extend to some fifteen years .  Pictures of some of the workshop activites and maps illustrating participant numbers and their associated institutions by state are provided.  Note that participants from all fifty states   plus District of Columbia, Guam and Puerto Rico attended these workshops -  multiple times in a number of cases.  A number of participants have described, via regional and national professional meetings, that the positive impact of the Program's  workshop content often led to the development of new or revised courses at their home institutions. These were made possible by the awarding of small travel grants, and matching support for instrument and/or equipment purchases. The information and new techniques learned from these workshops has been very favorably received by participants from large institutions, as well as community colleges across the country and will continue to be shared  with current and future students to provide quality education in the field of chemistry.


Last Modified: 05/31/2019
Modified by: Jerry C Smith

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