NSF Award
2404855
The NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Initiative (NSF INCLUDES) motivates and accelerates collaborative, systems change to broaden participation in STEM. A key part of the NSF INCLUDES strategy is building and strengthening a National Network. This National Network is a collaboration of agencies, organizations, individuals, and projects working together to design, implement, study, refine, and scale up collaborative change models and strategies. The NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub leads the National Network by building capacity, developing and sharing knowledge, and making connections to advance collaboration for systems change in STEM. With this award, the Coordination Hub leads a series of three conferences over five years to address critical thematic topics central to broadening participation in STEM fields through systems change. <br/><br/>Conference topics, such as accessibility and universal design – the inaugural topic, are co-designed with Incubator participants. The INCLUDES Incubator is a novel component within the NSF INCLUDES National Network in which participants explore problems of practice collectively, learn and share information about opportunities and barriers, and support project-level and collective action. Conference participants explore topics in the context of student learning, but also extend relevance to various STEM environments, including educational pathways, informal learning settings, and industry. Each conference includes industry representatives to broaden the impact of the topic of focus into the workforce. Participants receive tools, templates, checklists, frameworks, and similar materials that they can apply in their work. Facilitators and presenters provide examples in the context of the five elements of collaborative infrastructure. Team-based feedback and cross-team consultancies promote reflection and improvements in implementation of ideas and concepts.<br/><br/>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.
