Students, academic leaders, and educators gathered for the second Capitol Hill Symposium and SENCER Poster Session in mid-March, bringing with them evidence of creative applications of the SENCER ideals to a variety of topics and disciplines. This year's event focused on the preparation of students to enter the 21st century workforce, and the event agenda was expanded from last year's model to include distinguished speakers and a roundtable discussion on best practices in SENCER courses. The topics covered were diverse, and included course work in teacher education, mathematics, urban health, and environmental studies, among others. Institutional partnerships, large scale reforms, learning communities, and first-year courses were some of the settings in which alumni have applied the SENCER approach.

The poster session and lunch reception in Rayburn House Office Building was the first official event of the symposium, but most participants had already spent the morning on Capitol Hill in meetings with elected officials and legislative aides.

The majority of participants were able to spend some time in their elected official's office discussing the specifics of work they're doing on their campuses, as well as the work that the SENCER community as a whole has been doing to increase science literacy, interest in the STEM subjects, and to better prepare students to be active, well-rounded citizens. Attendees at the Poster Session and Symposium, which was held at the historic Charles Sumner School, included 63 educators, administrators, and students from 23 colleges, universities, and high schools from around the country. Following the Poster Session, participants had the chance to give short presentations on their courses and programs to fellow participants and guests during concurrent sessions at the Sumner School.

Workforce preparation was a natural theme for this year's event because of SENCER's success in helping students develop the skills to be successful in any career, an awareness of the intersection of science and public policy, and an increased interest in the sciences. The importance of STEM education in preparing a citizenry agile enough to both lead innovations and to adapt to rapidly changing technologies was a focus of the keynote address given by Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, Emily DeRocco, who spoke to symposium participants on Monday evening. She encouraged students to "make a positive contribution to [their] communities and to America" by developing their abilities and applying them to issues affecting their local areas, and commended Harrisburg University of Science and Technology for its "innovative" aims and execution of those goals. In her closing plenary address on Tuesday, Deidra Lewis, the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the City Colleges of Chicago, echoed the importance of supporting courses that increase student scientific literacy and encourage an understanding of the relationship between science and issues of concern, both local and national.

Secretary De Rocco's talk complemented a discussion student attendees took part in earlier that afternoon with Jennifer McNelly, the director of the Department of Labor's Business Relations Group for Employment and Training. Among other topics, Ms. McNelly connected student work with Department of Labor initiatives in their local communities, such as the WIRED Initiative. WIRED supports targeted regional economic development, and the innovative education and job training activities that sustain that development. The discussion also covered skills that are universally desirable in the job market, to help students prepare to enter the workforce shortly.

The discussion on workforce preparation continued on Tuesday morning with SENCER PI David Burns' introduction to an activity on best practices in SENCER courses. He spoke to SENCER's method of uncovering student interests and values to teach other topics as rooted in philosophies of education and cognitive development, and disputed statements by people who deride students for having only material desires. He noted that we must have some respect for students' material desires, as they have a realistic idea of what they need to do to support themselves once they graduate from college. Taking the achievements of SENCER courses into account, attendees were then asked to consider what could be done to reduce the risk students take in enrolling in SENCER courses and promote student success. Participants divided into small groups and worked for a little over an hour, discussing how to more explicitly connect learning in SENCER courses to career aspirations, how efforts to promote civic capacity as strengthen a number of skills, what pedagogical strategies best encourage skill development, how to encourage students to take a SENCER course early in their academic career, and what content, in general, is essential to skills development. Each group focused on a slightly different aspect of the topic, leading to a rich mix of comments on each point. Notes from each group's discussion will be compiled into a single document that will be posted on our website and used in future activities.

	Access poster abstracts and author lists from the SENCER Poster Session that took place on March 12, 2007 in Rayburn House Office Building. (PDF) Note: Not all authors listed in the booklet were present at the Poster Session.
	Access contact information for all participants and special guests from the NCSCE Capitol Hill Symposium and SENCER Poster Session, March 12-13, 2007. (PDF)