NRCEN Workshop 2007

Creating Positive Influence: Innovative Approaches to Research-based Education and Outreach

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About the Workshop

The 2007 NRCEN Workshop, Creating Positive Influence: Innovative Approaches to Research-based Education and Outreach workshop will be conducted by and for education and human resource (EHR) professionals within NSF science and engineering research Centers as well as participants from graduated Centers, representatives of university-wide outreach programs, and educators from NSF-supported science centers and/or museums.

Why You Should Attend

The Fifth NRCEN Workshop theme and associated threads support NSF program officers’ desire that NRCEN members become a well-known working group that provides and promotes efficient access to information about high quality education and outreach programs through active collaboration. Through face-to-face interactions and in virtual mode beyond the Fifth NRCEN Workshop, members facilitate and improve access to state-of-the-art methods and programs and joint activities and projects. Future group interactions will be planned through efficient, sustained use of the new interactive NRCEN website and other forms of electronic communication. 

Now under construction, a new NSF-funded NRCEN website will be demonstrated at this meeting, and feedback on usability will be collected. Both the workshop and new website provide a platform from which knowledge and resources can be assembled and distributed freely.

Workshop Theme and Threads

To increase NRCEN members’ skills in communication, collaboration and resource management, we have chosen as our central theme, Creating Positive Influence. The theme is applied to both those we serve — our external audiences (the Community-at-Large) — and NRCEN  members (Internal Community: Future of NRCEN, and Professional Development).

Workshop Format

To create a dynamic atmosphere and increase personal interactions, the agenda features a series of opening day mini-workshops, followed by special topics to be addressed by invited panelists and speakers largely chosen by or from among NRCEN members. Panel sessions will be combined with active “table” discussions, where participants will further discuss issues presented in small groups.  Real-time collection of members’ contributions to our growing collection of documents, tools, and best practices during the workshops and sessions will populate the new, interactive NRCEN website under construction.

Mini-Workshops, Panels, Speakers and Discussion Groups

Each year the workshop attracts both new and returning participants. Of great value to all is the opportunity for more experienced professionals to instruct and/or mentor newer education and outreach professionals. To offer training while maintaining the primary focus of the conference, skills workshops are traditionally offered on the day before the meeting convenes. Due to past high attendance rate at these pre-event mini-workshops, we are including these mini-workshops in the main agenda.

On the first day, eight mini-workshops will specifically address those target areas most often cited as important to NRCEN participants: K-12 education (formal, informal, and partnerships), diversity, effective print and electronic communications techniques and skills, working with public relations professionals and media reporters and writers, and assessment and evaluation.

How to create positive influence will be examined by participants throughout the three-day workshop in the context of the following three threads:

Thread 1. The Community-at-Large

• K-12 Education: This thread is addressed on Friday evening and again during panel and table discussions on Saturday
• Impact of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) on Center K-12 education programs: To be addressed by dinner keynote speaker
• Community partnerships with museums and science centers to promote hands-on learning
• Community partnerships with K-12 teachers
• Diversity: This thread is addressed on Saturday morning via panel discussion
• Addressing representation of underrepresented groups among university undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty and staff
• Communication and Public Relations: This thread is addressed in two Friday workshops
• Improving communication skills to effectively address multiple audiences
• Working with public relations professionals and media reporters and writers

Thread 2. The Internal Community: Future of NRCEN

• Growing NRCEN: This thread is addressed in a Friday workshop
• Orientation of new NRCEN members
• Usability and population of the new NRCEN Interactive website: This thread is addressed in a Friday afternoon workshop
• Website demo
• Feedback, usability surveys, sample contributions to populate the site
• Acting on the NRCEN community-endorsed strategic plan: This thread is addressed on Sunday.

Thread 3. The Internal Community: Professional Development

• The Internal Community: Assessment and Evaluation
• This thread is addressed in two Friday workshops
• This is also a topic for a NSF speaker on Saturday.
• Practical ideas and tools for training researchers for engagement in different contexts
• This thread is addressed in a Friday workshop

Saturday sessions are designed to further engage and inform all participants as they work within panels and discussion groups that address topics and issues related to NRCEN core goals.

This workshop picks up discussions started in the previous workshops, thus promoting continuity from year to year, enhancing members’ ability to collaborate, and helping to minimize duplication of effort by sharing information through two and a half days of individual personal contact.

Experts in all topics featured in the three Threads will be invited to participate on panels and in the discussion and breakout sessions. Specific topics may be addressed by individuals of national prominence. Please send your suggestions – or volunteer yourself – by sending email to NRCEN2007@umich.edu.

Our focus will continue the NRCEN workshop tradition of active participation by all attendees, and ample opportunity for discussion is incorporated into the agenda. Each session recorder will capture the ideas discussed by the group. Following the conclusion of the workshop, Fifth NRCEN Workshop hosts and organizers will meet with NSF program officers to report on the outcomes of the conference, get feedback, and discuss future plans.  This debriefing occurs each year and provides a valuable forum for NRCEN to discuss issues with NSF personnel and administrators.

Workshop proceedings will be electronically published and distributed via the NRCEN website.