5th NRCEN Workshop: Creating Positive Influence: Innovative Approaches to Research-based Education and Outreach

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This award provides funding to the University of Michigan for support of the 5th National Science Foundation Research Center Educators Network (NRCEN) Workshop: Creating Positive Influence: Innovative Approaches to Research-based Education and Outreach, to be held at the University of Michigan on April 12-15, 2007. The project is under the direction of Jill Andrews, Research Investigator and Director, Research Education and Outreach, School of Information and College of Engineering. This workshop will be conducted by and for education and human resource (EHR) professionals within NSF science and engineering research Centers, including Engineering Research Centers (ERCs) Science and Technology Centers (STCs), Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers (MRSECs), Major Research Equipment (MRE) sites, Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulations (NEES) headquarters and facilites sites, Earthquake Engineering Research Centers (EERCs), Nanoscale Science and Engineering Centers (NSECs), National Nanotechnology Infrastructure Network (NNIN), Physics Frontiers Centers (PFCs), the Science for Learning Centers (SLCs) and others including participants from graduated Centers, representatives of university-wide outreach programs, and informal educators from NSF-supported science centers and/or museums.The intellectual merit of this project is that the workshop setting provides a rare opportunity for face-to-face interaction, considered the most effective means of sharing information by the majority of NRCEN members. Through the workshop format and beyond members will facilitate and improve access to state-of-the-art methods and programs and joint activities and projects. The NRCEN website, currently under construction will be demonstrated during the workshop and feeback on usability will be collected. The broader impact of this workshop is that this format will serve as an important and vital mechanism to ensure that current and future outreach professionals will have the assistance they need to more effectively reach the "braod and diverse" audiences that NSF requires of its centers. Both the workshop and new website will provide a platform from which knowledge and resources can be assembled and distributed freely.The 5th NRCEN Workshop is being co-funded by the Directorate for Engineering, the Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences (MPS), the Directorate for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE), and the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA).