ECR: BCSER: Conference: Integrating STEM Education Research Collaboration for Regional Prosperity

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The proposed three-day conference "Integrating STEM Education Research Collaboration for Regional Prosperity" will highlight topics relevant to STEM education and workforce development in the greater Kansas City region. STEM education topics will include supporting student success, broadening participation in STEM, and developing partnerships between two- and four-year institutions. Regional prosperity topics will include identifying high-impact practices to retain STEM majors, promoting STEM careers, and building coalitions among regional stakeholders. Participants will present research and learn from each other while working together to identify how post-secondary education can improve its commitment to STEM student success and regional prosperity. The conference will support local and national efforts that increase STEM degree attainment, diversify the STEM workforce, and expand interdisciplinary approaches to post-secondary STEM education. The conference has four goals: 1) Support STEM education researchers to identify critical challenges, opportunities, and actionable solutions to retain STEM-aspirational students and graduate a diverse workforce; 2) Engage best practices on the frontiers of collective impact, institutional transformation, and data-informed collaboration; 3) Apply new knowledge and innovations to projects addressing both institutional and societal needs; and 4) Provide a venue for research dissemination and collaborative problem-solving. The conference will convene a "Think Tank” (conference plus networked improvement community) of top researchers, practitioners, and professionals who will collaboratively design, collect, and analyze data. Results of this analysis will support STEM education improvements to prepare a diverse STEM workforce that will promote increased regional prosperity. Ultimately, the conference outcomes will contribute an actionable set of data that can be useful for demystifying factors related to post-secondary attrition in the region and identifying feasible educational technology and pedagogies to improve STEM student retention. Additionally, the conference will develop a general ecosystem model focused on the unique academic, social, and cultural factors influencing STEM education research. The project is supported through the EHR Core Research: Building Capacity in STEM Education Research (ECR: BCSER) competition that is designed to build individuals' capacity to carry out high quality fundamental STEM education research in STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM fields, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.