“The quality of the Institute can be measured by the extent to which it motivates and informs people, and gets them to be productive, and SENCER's efforts have been extremely successful in all of these regards.” —SENCER Summer Institute Participant

The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement invites applications to the SENCER SUMMER INSTITUTE 2008
(SSI 2008)

August 8 – 11 at Santa Clara University (California)
Pre-Institute Workshops: Thursday, August 7

Applications will be available on December 21, 2008
Application Deadline: March 3, 2008
Applicants Notified: March 31, 2008

The Summer Institutes are annual, invitational, intensive, residential learning opportunities for faculty, academic leaders, and students. The Institutes represent the cornerstones of SENCER's faculty development and academic reform program. The Institutes feature a rich mix of plenary sessions, workshops, and concurrent sessions that focus not only on what students should learn, but how that learning might best be accomplished. A day of Pre-Institute workshops will be offered on Thursday, August 7 on a variety of topics, including one specially designed for people new to SENCER. These workshops will be open to all registered participants at no additional cost.

The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement invites participation from representatives of institutions that are in varying stages of developing innovative approaches, courses, and programs in the sciences and mathematics.

Participation is by invitation only and, with support from the National Science Foundation, the program is provided at no cost. Participants will be responsible for their travel costs and an accommodation fee. Groups of 4-6 persons are recommended for teams from new or alumni institutions. Individual participants from new and alumni institutions are also invited to apply. The accommodation fee of $750 per participant for the Institute will cover half of a double-occupancy guest room for four nights at the Fairmont Hotel San Jose, enrollment in Pre-Institute workshops, most meals, bus transportation, and materials.

New teams and alumni teams will be eligible to apply for NSF-supported sub-awards of $3,000, subject to NSF funding, following participation in SSI 2008. Implementation sub-awards will be competitive and will be awarded to meritorious and promising projects. NCSCE was able to make 25 sub-grants following the 2007 Institute.

Support for Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities (SENCER) is provided by the National Science Foundation's Course, Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement program under grant DUE-0717401.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: MARCH 3, 2008
Since space is limited, we cannot guarantee consideration of any applications received after the deadline.

NEW THIS YEAR

Each year, we do our best to improve program offerings to make the Institute as effective, useful, and interesting as possible for all participants. This year, we are adding an intensive team planning day to the end of the Institute program for teams who would like to consult with Institute faculty and other experts about their plans for course or curricula reform. A full day of Pre-Institute Workshops will take place on Thursday, August 7, and will be open to all interested SSI 2008 participants. Offerings will include a workshop specifically designed for people new to SENCER. We hope that offering these before the Institute will be convenient for all participants who wish to attend. SSI 2008 will celebrate the launch of the SENCER Digital Library and the redesign of the SALG (for more information on both, please see the December 2007 e-Newsletter). We will recognize newly appointed Leadership Fellows. (The Leadership Fellows program is a new initiative that will debut in the spring of 2008. Please check www.sencer.net for more information.) In addition to areas of interest and focus noted below, we are especially interested in promoting early enrollment in SENCER courses so that students have time to pursue any interest that grows out of the first course, and policies that affect STEM education, in the campus, regional, and national spheres.

GOALS AND OUTCOMES

The SENCER Summer Institute (SSI) 2008 is one component of SENCER's national dissemination program designed to improve undergraduate education and undergraduate science education and stimulate civic engagement through the design and development of courses that teach “to” basic science “through” complex, capacious, and unsolved public issues.

The goals of the SSI 2008 are to work with campus teams and individual faculty members to further the development of institutional capacities. The SSI 2008 program will:

1. Explore, explain, and elucidate the SENCER approach,
2. Encourage development and refinement of SENCER models, and
3. Engage participants in a series of on-going collaborations designed to scale-up and sustain undergraduate science education reform.

Following participation in SSI 2008, participants should be better positioned to help their institutions achieve a variety of outcomes, including:

• Improving science education (with an increase in both student interest and capacity),
• Organizing interdisciplinary studies (while respecting the strengths and limitations of single disciplinary perspectives),
• Stimulating critical thinking and civic engagement,
• Increasing participation of underrepresented individuals in science education,
• Connecting science education and professional education (notably pre-service teacher education),
• Assessing student learning in ways that are both rigorous and supportive of innovation, and
• Focusing institutional attention on some of the most difficult problems of our time.

Please visit our Institute Archives Page for more information on institutions that participated in SSI 2001- 2007.

Please see SENCER Models for examples of courses and course modules developed by the SENCER project.

PARTICIPATION

The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement invites participation from educators and administrators whose projects are in varying stages of planning and development. We also welcome students who are currently involved in SENCER courses or who plan to pursue careers in teaching and/or the STEM disciplines. We are open to participants with a general interest in the SENCER approach to curricular reform as well as those who have fully-formed courses and programs. The diversity of our Institute participants helps us create a community of academic leaders and scholars who can learn from and share with one another.

Here are the two ways to participate in SSI 2008:

Team Participation
Four to six member teams of faculty, administrators, and students are invited to apply to attend. Subject to anticipated funding, teams who attend the Institute will be eligible to apply for an implementation grant of $3,000 following the Institute.

This option of attendance is ideal for groups of faculty members, administrators, and students who are in varying stages of developing SENCER courses and programs. The Institute will provide teams with dedicated “team time” to conceptualize a course design and develop concrete plans for implementation. SENCER encourages collaboration across the disciplines and the Institute will feature sessions that are relevant to a broad audience. SENCER faculty members, Senior Associates, and alumni will be available to provide consultations and assistance to institutional teams. This category of participation also includes alumni institution teams and multi-institutions teams.

Individual Participation for New and Alumni Participants
New Participants:
Interested faculty members, administrators, and students with meritorious course and program proposals can apply to attend.

This option of attendance is ideal for individuals who are interested in an intensive development and community building opportunity. Individual participants will benefit from joining a network of practitioners engaged in innovative pedagogical strategies focused on improving undergraduate education in the sciences and mathematics. Participation in SSI 2008 provides an ideal opportunity to determine whether full team participation in a subsequent Institute is desirable.

Alumni Participants:
Individuals who have attended an Institute in the past as an individual representative or as a member of a team are invited to attend as alumni participants. These individuals will not be eligible to apply for an implementation grant following the Institute.

This option of attendance is ideal for individuals who have already attended a Summer Institute and are currently engaged in campus-based SENCER-related activities. Alumni participants will benefit from reconnecting with the SENCER community to broaden and deepen their work. The Institute will provide alumni with an opportunity to present their work to an audience of higher education professionals from across the nation as well as a forum in which they may obtain feedback and seek consultation. There will be a series of special alumni sessions during the Institute to meet the specific needs of alumni attendees, and alumni will also be invited to a special recognition dinner.

SSI 2008 will encourage active participation in a structure that supports productive communication among all participants. Work will be extensive and intensive, taking full advantage of the time we will have together. A variety of modalities will be employed to facilitate individual and group interests and needs. There will be scheduled times for reflection, relaxation, and recreation.

The SSI 2008 schedule will include:

• General plenary sessions for all participants to focus on common themes and locate SENCER in the contexts of national trends in general education and science education reform and renewal,
• SENCER model sessions for participants to work with SENCER model developers to pursue particular interests (a menu of models will be offered) and to work to develop or refine courses and programs for local implementation,
• Topical breakout sessions on a broad range of subjects/issues to permit teams and individuals to take full advantage of the resources available,
• Alumni presentations from schools that have developed and implemented SENCER courses and programs,
• An academic poster session to showcase exemplary campus work and connect members with projects whose products and services can support campus reforms,
• Individual and team consultations for help on team-specific issues and challenges,
• Scheduled team time to permit teams to develop individual courses, as well as implementation plans and strategies for achieving them.

INSTITUTE LEADERSHIP

SSI 2008 will treat all participants as leaders and learners. Those of us who are planning SSI 2008 are learners as well. We hope to cultivate our capacities as natural scientists and to use our observations and what we learn from working together to shape and re-shape what we do. We will have some special help in this work from invited scholars and leaders, including several SENCER Senior Associates, who have served as "faculty" for our seven previous SENCER Summer Institutes. Past Institute schedules and faculty biographies are available in the Institute Archives.

CROSSCUTTING THEMES FOR SSI 2008

This year, in addition to addressing traditional SENCER areas, we will pay special attention to developing a competent, science literate workforce, community colleges, pre-service teacher education, and assessment. Distinguished leaders in the STEM and education fields will give plenary talks that address these topics.

Aligning undergraduate STEM education with new demands in workforce development, competitiveness, and civic engagement, with a focus on

• Strengthening the concept of science literacy and its applications, especially in courses for STEM majors,
• Encouraging greater enrollment in STEM courses, and
• Planning for student achievement.

Recognizing and promoting the role of community colleges in STEM education, with a focus on

• Improving articulation with four-year institutions,
• Creating shared and collaborative courses, and
• Cultivating student talent.

Encouraging students to become capable and confident K-12 teachers, with a focus on

• Extending the SENCER approach to elementary and secondary education,
• Promoting the development of SENCER courses for pre-service teacher education, and
• Strengthening collaborations between science and education faculty.

Gathering evidence of the effectiveness of the SENCER approach, with a focus on

• Increasing attention to course planning, goal setting, and appropriate measurement of outcomes,
• Applying the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to assessing how science is learned and how that learning is transferred to new intellectual challenges, and
• Organizing the learning experience so as to promote student success.

INSTITUTE CURRICULUM

The SENCER Summer Institute 2008 curriculum will cover five areas related to SENCER's major objectives in addition to the crosscutting themes and will include ample opportunity to follow new directions that participants indicate they wish to explore.

Establishing SENCER ideals within the best traditions and most promising future directions of good academic practice

• SENCER's relationship to higher education's historic mission and to important national objectives for improving science education, specifically, and higher education, generally, will be described and debated.

Disseminating promising SENCER models and approaches

• Several successful models of SENCER courses and approaches will be explored in depth. At the conclusion of the Institute, participants should be able to adapt and implement these or similar courses on their campuses.

Exploring strategies and challenges for implementing and sustaining reforms in science education

• Teams will develop plans and strategies to implement and sustain SENCER courses and programs leading to improved science education that meets high standards of achievement, is appropriately supported, and satisfies institutional aims regarding learning and civic engagement.

Developing appropriate pedagogical practices and assessment strategies that support innovation and meet high standards

• Participants will consider and practice pedagogical strategies appropriate to SENCER courses and programs. They will develop plans to participate in a national assessment of student learning in SENCER courses that will occur in parallel with established local efforts to measure student achievement of learning gains.

Encouraging affiliations and forming local and regional networks to support program improvement, expansion, and future development

• Team members will be invited to join collaborative programs designed to develop and sustain reforms. Opportunities for engagement with complementary science reform efforts will be identified and briefings on securing support for continuing local efforts will be provided.

OUR HOST INSTITUTION AND MEETING FACILITIES

We are delighted that Santa Clara University will once again host the Summer Institute.

Accommodations for institute participants will be provided by the Fairmont Hotel in downtown San Jose. This is a luxurious hotel with a full range of amenities and services. SENCER has reserved a block of rooms at a substantially reduced rate for all participants. We will make your reservations for you using information we collect during registration for SSI 2008 (following notifications of acceptances to SSI 2008).

Transportation between the hotel and the campus will be provided, but participants will also have the option of walking to campus.

SELECTION CRITERIA

SENCER staff will evaluate each application received, paying attention to the narrative submitted. We will seek to represent a diversity of interests and institutional types, as well as a mix of institutions that are in varying stages of interest or development of SENCER courses, programs and approaches. We will strive to create a learning community that includes a rich assortment of needs and assets.

We aim to find ways to accommodate interest in SENCER, however, we have financially imposed limitations. Our goal is not to select "a chosen few," but to expand the number of students, faculty members, and institutions engaged in substantive science education reform. If we are unable to accept your application for this year's Institute, we will seek to find ways to connect you to the SENCER program and make it possible for you to attend a subsequent Summer Institute.

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

To apply, please click on the type of application you want to submit (see links below.) Follow the instructions to submit your application Online. If you prefer to receive an MS Word version of the SSI 2008 application via e-mail, please contact Danielle Kraus at danielle.kraus@sencer.net . Please specify what type of application you would like to receive.

Apply to Participate as an Institutional or Alumni Team

Apply to Participate as an Individual or an Alumni Participant

DEADLINES AND NOTIFICATIONS

We will consider completed applications as they are submitted. The deadline for all completed applications is March 3, 2008 . We can't guarantee consideration of applications received past the deadline due to space limitations. Our aim is to complete the review process by March 31, 2008. Invited participants will receive online registration information, pre-Institute materials, and related items in the months leading up to SSI 2008.

QUESTIONS? CONTACT SENCER

We welcome your questions and, to the extent that we can, we will be happy to respond to your requests for assistance as you contemplate applying to participate in SSI 2008. To contact the SENCER office, e-mail Danielle Kraus at danielle.kraus@sencer.net or call the National Office at (202) 483-4600. You may also contact David Burns at david.burns@sencer.net .

About The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement
Harrisburg University of Science and Technology

The mission of the National Center for Science and Civic Engagement is to inspire, support, and disseminate campus-based science education reform strategies that strengthen learning and build civic accountability among students in colleges and universities. The Center will serve as a national resource for the improvement of undergraduate science education and will provide a platform enabling faculty and administrators to broaden the impact of their innovations and reforms beyond their campuses.

The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement was established in affiliation with Harrisburg University of Science and Technology in 2004. The Center will develop and house activities and projects that encourage and strengthen campus-based efforts to reform undergraduate science education, enhance student learning, engage students with pressing civic questions, and address important issues of our common health.