Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

The Innovation Corps program works with K-12 students, both in the classroom and in informal settings to understand scientific concepts in a fun and playful manner. Wearable technology is used to lead students through kinesthetic, activity-based “experiments”. The Creative Scientific Inquiry Experiences (CSIE) initiative is an innovative approach to retain and increase the number of STEM graduates by combining faculty professional development, curricular reform, and student collaboration with STEM faculty, peers, and the community through experiential community-based experiences. The use of an e-learning platform to understand our environment and its chemistry through web-based “research” and to explain it in non-science terms lends itself to university undergraduates globally. This type of on-line courses, both “lecture” and “laboratory” is useful to those undergraduate students who dread taking a required science as part their general education curriculum. Soft-skill workshops help undergraduates, graduate students, and early career faculty add skills beyond their formal STEM training. These workshops address the need to communicate to a general audience, to prepare manuscripts for publishing research, to prepare a successful grant proposal, and to understand various careers in STEM.