A key part of creating effective Broader Impacts partnerships is the process of collaboration. COSEE-Ocean Systems, as part of a partnership with the New England Ocean Sciences Education Collaborative (NEOSEC) hosted a Broader Impacts Collaboration Workshop on April 11, 2013 with the aim of providing scientists and educators with tools and strategies for successful partnerships.
This pilot workshop model included presentations from scientists reflecting upon their own Broader Impacts experiences, and sessions designed for small groups to explore a project together. In matched scientist/educator teams of 3-4 people, concept mapping was used to facilitate the “deconstruction” of science content, and educators used the maps to identify areas in their own institutions that could connect with scientists' work. Participant teams then followed a guided “workbook” to outline needed elements to the project – identifying an audience; brainstorming potential activities; drafting a budget and identifying potential funding sources; and creating a logic model to clearly express the outputs and the needed materials/time to accomplish the project. The 17 participants (made up of 10 scientists and 7 educators) rated the workshop highly, with 79% finding the breakout sessions in particular to be “useful/very useful” to their work.
After the workshops, groups were encouraged to work towards creating a Broader Impacts project or statement, and were invited to present their work at a webinar several weeks later. COSEE-OS evaluator Ted Repa and PI Annette deCharon were on hand during the webinar to provide feedback coming from their perspective as frequent grant writers and reviewers.
