Conference: Illinois Two-Year College STEM Consortium

This project aims to serve the national interest by fostering interinstitutional connections among two-year college educators to expand access and drive innovation in STEM education. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign partners with two-year colleges across the state to share current initiatives and provide professional development for STEM educators in Illinois and neighboring states. The ITYC Conference project includes a plan to disseminate findings to the broader STEM education community. Additionally, these findings inform the development of a statewide Illinois Community College STEM Consortium, establishing a long-term framework for enhancing connectivity and professional development among two-year college STEM educators. The main goals of this project include: 1) gathering input to inform the creation of a statewide Illinois two-year college STEM consortium, 2) engaging Illinois two-year college STEM educators in discussions on undergraduate research and fostering connections with four-year institutions, 3) providing opportunities to share recent and ongoing initiatives, and 4) increasing awareness and engagement of two-year college STEM educators with external funding opportunities. To achieve these goals, the project facilitates pre-conference activities, including surveys to assess educator needs and interests related to undergraduate research and external funding. This information guides the development of a responsive conference schedule and helps identify potential presenters. The conference's assessment and evaluation component gathers feedback on its impact while advancing understanding of two-year college STEM educator interests, initiatives, and challenges related to undergraduate research. Findings from the project are shared with participants and the broader STEM education community through conference presentations and a publicly available website. Additionally, these results help shape the future formation of the statewide consortium. The NSF IUSE: Innovation in Two-Year College STEM Education (ITYC) Program seeks to accelerate the impact of and advance knowledge about emerging and evidence-based practices in undergraduate STEM education at two-year colleges. 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.