Welcome to our 'snapshot' video.  It is a slice of how our group's public engagement with science programs at the Discovery Building on the UW-Madison campus relies on strong partners, on-campus and off-campus.   Our group of public engagement professionals from WARF and the Morgridge Institute for Research partner with UW-Madison students, staff, and faculty to help support quality design and implementation of broader impacts programs.  This NSF-AISL project led by Kevin Niemi of WISCIENCE at UW-Madison seeks to explore ways we can improve support for Broader Impacts planning and implementation by developing sustainable institutional partnerships between higher education institutions (UW-Madison) and an informal science education setting (Discovery Building). 

Our project is connected to other projects focusing in on Broader Impacts and partnerships at Cornell University and Sciencenter, University of Washington-Bothell and the Pacific Science Center; all of our projects are being researched by Oregon State University.  Leadership of the project is in association with the Institute for Learning Innovation.  Just this last September (2018) new partnerships joined the broader project from the Minnesota Zoo and University of Minnesota, Science Discovery and University of Colorado-Boulder, Fleet Science Center and University of California-San Diego, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and Museum of Life and Science and Duke University, Vermont Institute of Natural Science and Dartmouth Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, Explora and University of New Mexico.

It has been amazing to be able to learn how unique yet how similar these partnerships are across the board.  The coolest thing about being involved with this project is learning from all the individuals across the sites, there are so many great ideas in action. 

We hope that you can share some ideas in action that you may have to help the broader community!

We are lucky to have communities of practice like the UW-Madison Science Alliance and the newly formed Illuminating Discovery Hub to help support making connections for public engagement with science across a large campus setting like UW-Madison.  Our video focuses on one part of our project; making it easier to make connections, largely from the viewpoint of a Primary Investigator (PI) developing/implementing a Broader Impacts plan.  

What works for you to help support on-campus and off-campus connections for Broader Impacts?

Hi Travis! Thanks for starting the important conversation of how to reach beyond the walls of academia to make a broader impact! I’m excited to read responses to your prompt about what actions other researchers are taking. My question for you is - what are some tips you can share for new PIs who want to form partnerships for broader impacts?

Becca,

Excellent question; we have learned a lot about this.  We are trying to shift the process for PIs 'shopping' readily-available broader impacts projects to identifying and creating aligned and relevant broader impacts projects.  The difference is providing support for PIs to define and connect to their 'Impact Identity' early on in the process. This helps to support connections in broader impacts that have personal meaning and in a lot of cases intrinsic motivation to make the planned  societal impact happen.  In a practical sense it involves impact identity workshops and individual meetings with PIs as early as possible in the proposal process.  This helps to guide the next steps around the types of partners on campus and in the community that might be a match.    

We have learned from the work of Julie Risien and Martin Storksdieck at Oregon State University, as well as our learning community in the Broader Impact Design project, NABI, and ARIS to inform how we shape our consultations and workshops.  

Julie Risien, Martin Storksdieck; Unveiling Impact Identities: A Path for Connecting Science and Society, Integrative and Comparative Biology, Volume 58, Issue 1, 1 July 2018, Pages 58–66, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icy011

Thanks for your video! I noticed that you show engagement with children in the video. That's great! Please don't forget engagement with K-12 teachers! When you hold workshops to engage K-12 teachers in your research you are actually reaching not only the teacher, but also all of their students, and in ways that may be longer lasting and more deeply impacting. 

Aida,

Most certainly, thanks for that note.  We are trying to support researchers in making the right connections for their Broader Impacts.  In cases where researchers identify K-12 as part of their Impact Identity we help to narrow down and focus in on a subset of K-12.  Then we would help to identify partners such as our Research Experience for Teachers program that our UW-Madison MRSEC program has, or making connections to the Wisconsin Society for Science Teachers for professional teacher connections.  As part of the development process of the BI activities we would leverage our infrastructure at the Discovery Building and garner co-creation and feedback from K-12 teachers and students in our field trip programs and summer camps that have students and teachers as participants with the researchers or our staff. 

I'd like to hear more about any ideas for being able to work best with teachers at the co-creation stage of BI projects in models that value the professional roles and extended professional expectations that teachers have.    

I am sharing some of the aspects of our work with K-12 STEM teacher leaders at the Summer Leadership Institute of the National Science Education Leadership Association. My talk is titled Expanding the Connections of K-12 with Informal STEM Institutions and Higher Education. We are meeting June 23-June 26 in Orlando. See https://www.nsela.org/2019-summer-leadership-in... for details.

Hey Travis, I love seeing so much BID work. I was wondering how you've been evaluating/researching the impacts of your work? What have you found most useful or interesting? 

Hi, thanks for sharing your work with us, have you connected your BI program with those outside of your state or is your goal to connect within your community? thanks again.

Thanks Gregory,

To add and expand on what Travis shared on partnerships, I am a co-PI on both the National Alliance for Broader Impacts (NABI) and the Advancing Research Impacts in Society (ARIS) projects funded by NSF. They are both heavily geared towards establishing a Community of Practice around BI work and sharing our effective programs and practices with all interested professionals. ARIS is a five year Center grant from NSF so watch for its evolution as a professional organization and resource center at www.researchinsociety.org.

Hi Fellow Madisonians!

I was excited to see your video! Thanks for sharing your work with a wider audience. I remember how important your partnership was to the Madison Metropolitan School District as we worked to provide professional learning opportunities for both public and private school teachers in science. I greatly valued your participation in the process and the impact it had on both teachers and their students.

I hope you will be able to watch a video about how my current work is allowing me to serve teachers in the Milwaukee and Racine School districts as well as in districts in CA through an i3 grant. I'm thankful there are efforts in our state and across the nation to make science teaching and learning better for all!

Great idea.  All institutions should consider such a team to support broader impacts and community outreach.

Love it!

Pat,

It's been a great opportunity to grow our partnership (WISCIENCE - UW-Madison & the Discovery Building's public engagement with science programs) to help support Broader Impacts.  We have been motivated by and learned a lot from  the various support mechanisms across the board; there is quite the continuum of options that take shape to reflect the priorities and resources of the local settings.