BE STEM Center Resources

Below you will find helpful information about community and university resources that are available to you.

BE STEM hosted a virtual workshop series, “Pushing Towards Equity in Outreach: Centering Students & Communities” for Pitt’s outreach program community!

This workshop series, funded by a Pitt Seed Grant, is designed to convene our outreach program community around the related national research being conducted by the STEM PUSH Network. Started at Pitt from the work of several outreach programs, STEM PUSH, funded by the National Science Foundation, is building a national network of pre-college programs focused on broadening equity in STEM fields. These workshops are designed to share resources that are available to Pitt Outreach Programs and to provide tools that can help broaden participation within your program.

Workshop 1: Highlighting University Resources for Outreach Programs
Friday, Feb. 25, noon-1:00 p.m.
This 1-hour introductory workshop will highlight campus resources available for Outreach Programs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Workshop 2: Applying Culturally Sustaining Practice in Recruitment and Design
Friday, Mar. 4, noon-2:00 p.m.
Strategies to implement effective and equitable recruitment practices and how to incorporate culturally sustaining practices in program design will be the focus.

Workshop 3: Identifying Improvement Needs from a Community Perspective
Friday, Mar. 18, noon-2:00 p.m.
Participants will use information from Workshop 2 to explore process mapping as a tool to design equitable recruitment strategies and investigate the use of empathy interviews to improve programming.

Pitt Outreach Programs that have a representative attend all workshops will receive a modest stipend.

Resources

Remake Learning

Remake Learning is a network that ignites engaging, relevant, and equitable learning practices in support of young people navigating rapid social and technological change. Remake Learning originated in response to the emerging reality that youth in the digital age are pursuing knowledge, developing their identities, and seeking support differently.

Pittsburgh Regional STE(A)M Ecosystem

The Pittsburgh Regional STE(A)M Ecosystem cultivates diverse and equitable high-quality STEM and STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts and Mathematics) learning opportunities, addressing real world challenges, for all students in our region with an eye toward building a scientifically-informed citizenry, and creative, prosperous, and resilient population.

STEM Ecosystems

The STEM Ecosystems Initiative is built on over a decade of research into successful STEM collaborations, and seeks to nurture and scale effective science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning opportunities for all young people.

Launched in Denver at the Clinton Global Initiative, the STEM Funders Network STEM Learning Ecosystems Initiative forms a National Community of Practice with expert coaching and support from leaders such as superintendents, scientists, industry and others.

The 89 communities selected from across the world compose a global Community of Practice and have demonstrated cross-sector collaborations to deliver rigorous, effective pre-K-16 instruction in STEM learning.

University of Pittsburgh K-12 Connector

The University of Pittsburgh offers a wide range of programs for pre-K-12 students, as well as for the teachers and administrators who work with these students.

University of Pittsburgh Engagement
and Outreach Map

Use this interactive map to learn more about several local Engagement and Outreach Programs and Activities.

Research

Each year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) receives about 50,000 proposals for funding. Since there are many more worthy proposals than NSF is able to fund, the foundation distinguishes among them through a merit review process that incorporates two criteria: Intellectual merit and broader impacts.

Each proposal submitted to the foundation for funding consideration is required to address the two criteria fully and in separate statements.

With some projects, broader impacts are intrinsic to the research itself. In others, the focus may be on education in science, technology, investigators engineering, or mathematics (STEM), and both intellectual merit and broader impacts are inherent in the educational work.

Increasingly, investigators are encouraged to envision an integration of their research with education, so that broader impacts are "interwoven throughout.” – The National Science Foundation

University of Pittsburgh Office of Research

Pitt Research couples the research efforts of faculty and students to funding agencies, corporate sponsors, other institutions, and government entities, and assures integrity, compliance, and excellence.

Office of Sponsored Programs

The Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP), a central office reporting to the Senior Vice Chancellor for Research, is charged with assisting faculty, staff, and students in their efforts to promote and secure sponsored research funding.

The OSP reviews, negotiates, endorses, and provides administrative oversight related to proposals and awards in accordance with all applicable laws, policies and regulations.

NSF INCLUDES National Network Coordination Hub

In 2016, the National Science Foundation (NSF) established the Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science (INCLUDES) program to help address national challenges in broadening STEM participation.

To make steady progress in efforts to broaden participation, NSF INCLUDES champions innovative approaches in scaling evidence-based best practices (James and Singer, 2016).

The NSF INCLUDES National Network, a national movement to broaden participation in STEM with representation in every state and diverse STEM disciplines, is composed of partners from a wide range of organizations, including higher education, K-12, industry, government, non-profits, and research organizations.

The NSF INCLUDES National Network, through its expansive collaborative infrastructure, is uniquely positioned to accelerate the scaling of identified, evidence-based broadening participation strategies.

Broader Impacts

The center will support Pitt faculty and staff in the design and implementation of grant-funded broadening participation initiatives, and by further connecting Pitt with local and regional organizations working to improve issues around equity and access in education.

At an increasing rate, external funding agencies are requiring demonstration that academic work provides a broader service to society.

The National Science Foundation, for example, weighs broader impacts and intellectual merit equally in merit review. This prevents many researchers from presenting competitive applications to these agencies because of the time, connections and skillset required to design and execute impactful broader impacts initiatives.

The Outreach Program in the Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences Department of Biological Sciences has developed a successful mechanism to support researchers by leveraging the infrastructure of the program to develop and execute broader impact initiatives. That Outreach Program has been well developed over decades and has an extensive reach into the state-wide K-12 in and out-of-school time communities, therefore initiatives are developed that operate at a scope and scale not achievable by individual researchers alone.

Dr. Legg developed the Outreach Program and this grant support mechanism in Biological Sciences. She is eager to scale this model to support Pitt faculty and staff broadly through the development of initiatives that will synergistically enhance University research and the work of the BE STEM Center.

National Science Foundation (NSF) Broader Impacts

Each year, the National Science Foundation (NSF) receives about 50,000 proposals for funding. Because there are far more meritorious proposals than NSF is able to fund, the foundation distinguishes among those proposals through a merit review process.

Association for Women in Science

AWIS provides a unique national platform where essential research meets advocacy, innovation and practice in supporting the advancement of women in STEM.

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