Special Opportunity for Faculty Sponsors at the Undergraduate
Research Conference!
You are invited to attend a special workshop during the
Undergraduate Research Conference at Butler University on April 12,
designed specifically for faculty interested in incorporating civic
engagement into STEM and STEM-related courses. The workshop
will feature presentations on courses using the SENCER approach,
and conversation about wider involvement with the Center from
colleagues across the region.
Butler University is one of six Centers for Innovation of
SENCER, a national organization that improves science education by
focusing on real world problems and, by so doing, extends the
impact of this learning across the curriculum to the broader
community and society. Using materials, assessment instruments, and
research developed in the SENCER project, faculty design curricular
projects that connect science learning to real world
challenges.
In order to allow for faculty sponsors to attend their students'
presentations, the same SENCER workshop will be presented twice:
10:30 a.m. to noon, and then from 1 to 2:30 p.m. To help us best
prepare, please indicate your interest in attending by sending an
email toSCICentralPlains@butler.edu.
There are no additional costs for this SENCER workshop (your URC
registration covers it all).
We look forward to seeing you at the URC and the SENCER
workshop!
The Butler SENCER Leadership Team,
Laura Behling, Ph.D.
Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
Margaret Brabant, Ph.D.
Professor, Political Science
Donald Braid, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Citizenship and Community
Joseph Kirsch, Ph.D.
Professor, Chemistry
About Butler University's Center for Innovation
The SENCER Centers for Innovation are regionally distributed
organizations that offer programming and support for current
members of the SENCER community and people new to SENCER. Butler
University's Center for Innovation, identified as the Central
plains region, launched in January 2012.
As a SENCER Center for Innovation, Butler University brings the
ideals of SENCER to faculty, staff and students at Butler and to
interested institutions in the central plains region. The SCI
assists Butler in achieving its educational mission with regard to
civic education and engagement, general education (our Core
curriculum), and STEM and STEM-related majors courses. The SCI also
provides Butler and regional institutions with leadership for the
following activities: developing or enhancing civic education and
civic engagement at the local level, in the Midwest, and
nationally; faculty development, course development, curricular
development and faculty/undergraduate research support; unique, out
of classroom learning opportunities; and strategies to connect k-16
science education with civic education.
SENCER's Background and Intellectual Traditions
SENCER--Science Education for New Civic Engagements and
Responsibilities--was initiated in 2001 under the National Science
Foundation's CCLI national dissemination track. Since then, SENCER
has established and supported an ever-growing community of faculty,
students, academic leaders, and others to improve undergraduate
STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education
by connecting learning to critical civic questions. SENCER is the
signature program of the National Center for Science and Civic
Engagement, which was established in affiliation with Harrisburg
University of Science and Technology. (www.sencer.net)