The Center for Science & Mathematics Education at the University of Utah

Projects in Progress

Below are descriptions of various projects we're currently working on.

Afterschool Science for Refugee Communities

Refugee communities represent a unique, rich, and challenging audience for science educators. CSME staff are overcoming language and cultural differences to present physics content and raise awareness of scientific approaches through an afternoon after school science enrichment program. Currently focused on Sudanese refugees, CSME will expand to other groups, and to other scientific disciplines. Currently, it is supported by Refugee Services Office, with logistical help from the Refugee and Immigrant Center at Asian Association of Utah (RIC) and the University Neighborhood Partners.

Faith and Nature Travel Guides

People of many religious faiths and other groups travel to far-off places and live there for some time. Adjusting to the different culture and customs can be a challenge, but the universal interest and appeal of local natural history – identifying and understanding the birds, trees, flowers, and medicinal plants – is common to nearly everyone. The CSME creates and distributes small field guides of both the foreign venue and of Utah that can be taken to other countries to help make initial contacts with local people, and instill a longer-term awareness and interest in natural history.

Public Presentations and Media Training for Scientists

Few scientists receive training in public speaking or interactions with the media, so the CSME has created a short-course to help academic researchers communicate their work to other researchers, hte media, and to public audiences. Valerie Kittel, a former theater actress who consults to businesspeople on public communication, will conduct workshops for scientists. Randall Carlisle, former news anchor for SALT-TV, will present media training.

Consultants for Broader Impacts Menu

The NSF and other funding sources - as well as society at large – require scientists to articulate and implement the “broader impacts” of their research. The cross-disciplinary approaches of the CSME, as well as the many existing public venues they have established provide a venue for scientists of many disciplines to seek guidance and audiences to carry out these interactions with the public through formal and informal science education pathways. Individuals or groups of faculty can consult with senior staff at the CSME and get help in choosing which public audience and by what medium their research can best be disseminated.

Common Table Gatherings

These meetings were created to provide a venue for stimulating and interdisciplinary questions and problems of people within and outside academia. The central idea is that people from very different backgrounds can provide fresh perspectives and understandings about pressing issues of our time. For each dinner, we selected five scientists and five representatives of “outside” groups: arts, politics, business, religion, and sports. Discussions were recorded and summarized, and we have expectations that projects and interactions will continue beyond the events.

Other Choices, Other Voices

The job situation for academics is poor, with fewer than 20% of PhD students hired in an academic position. This forum will bring professionals who have chosen other ways of using their PhDs for their jobs: people in conservation, government, education, and business. The forums provide venues for students, faculty, and staff to query these ‘non-academic success stories’ about their work and their lives.

SRN Program

The Sustainability Research Network program is a new cross-disciplinary large-scale ($12 million/proposal) program to bring understanding of concepts and practices of sustainability, in its broadest sense. The CSME is assembling a proposal to address that, and is collaborating with architects, psychologists, biologists, artists, and environmental scientists.

Art/Science Initiative

There are growing numbers of scientists who are working with artists, and artists working with scientists to better understand the world , and to communicate results to others. The U of U and the Salt Lake City community are uniquely positioned to become leaders in projects that involve the confluence of art and science. Arts and sciences educators within the university and state school system, and artists and informal science educators outside the university, are making first steps in organizing a network to facilitate these activities.

CSME Conference

Although Centers for Science and Mathematics Education exist on over 100 campuses and play unique roles in STEM education, no unifying organization exists. The CSME is organizing a national conference to bring CSME representatives to discuss cutting edge issues in STEM education, links between formal and informal science education, and serve as a Launchpad for new initiatives. A public event – lecture and gala – will be part of this gathering.

Sports and Science Initiative

These two disciplines are often at opposite ends of the spectrum, but the CSME is working out ways to juxtapose them for mutual benefit. As a way of inspiring middle school students toward science - as well as a U of U recruitment tool – the CSME is bringing athletic starts together with science faculty to create posters and short videos to help convince youth that science and sports can go together.

Math 1030 Online

This is an innovative online class for students who wish to gain mathematics competency. Current evaluation and assessment tools are being used to ensure rapid and specific feedback to course instructors.

Scientists-in-Schools Project

Working initially in the Salt Lake Center for Science Education, we are bringing science faculty to give presentations that reveal the “person behind the science” as well as science content itself. Middle and highschool students create biographies of the scientist as well as others in their lives to understand that scientists are similar to others, reinforcing NSF’s desire to “place scientists into public lives”. Videotapes of these presentations will be distributed through formal education channels.

Utah High School Cosmic Ray Project (UHiSCP)

UHiSCP is a project to observe Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) using ground based detectors. The detectors will be built by the students themselves and placed on the roofs of their schools. This program is an ideal way for students to experience Science Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) learning. Students will gain hands-on experience engineering, building, and programming instruments to collect scientific data. They will build a background in mathematics and fundamental physics while analyzing the data they collect.