Southeastern STEM Education Research Conference
January 13 & 14, 2023
The 17th Annual Southeastern STEM Education Research Conference brings together researchers and educators to discuss STEM education studies and how they are applied in K-20 learning environments.
The 17th Annual Southeastern STEM Education Research Conference, will be held Friday, January 13-Saturday, January 14, 2023 at the Tennessee Tech University Campus in Cookeville, TN. This will be an in-person event.
Also, please be aware that the Call for Proposals will be much earlier this year as to allow more time to prepare posters and presentations. We hope this will make the proposal process go more smoothly and be more convenient for participants. The deadline to submit your proposal will be September 9, 2022 at 5:00 pm CST.
The goals of this conference include:
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Share methods, data, and current research questions within disciplinary and interdisciplinary STEM contexts
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Facilitate discussions between researchers and educators
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Encourage local, state and national STEM education collaboration and partnerships
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Develop improved teaching methods for STEM topics
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Produce networking opportunities across stakeholder communities
This conference will include addresses from national leaders in STEM education research, visual and oral presentations, and informal sessions to support collaborations. We encourage submissions across all STEM education research areas, both traditional and emerging, as well as at any educational level.
Early Career Panel
The Early Career Panel Event has been a part of the Southeastern STEM Education Research conference since 2021, and its purpose is to give early-career individuals a space to discuss what is involved with building a career in STEM education. One of the priorities of this conference is to be welcoming to those at all levels of their career, and we are happy to host this event for graduate students, post-doctoral researchers, and those entering a new phase of their career. The event will consist of a panel of STEM education researchers at various points in their career and a roundtable discussion with other event attendees. We hope this event is an opportunity for those at an early stage in their career to ask questions, network, and kick off the conference by supporting and connecting with other junior and senior researchers.
This year's panelists are:
- Dr. Olena James (Biology, Belmont University)
- Amanda Lake Heath (Mathematics, Middle Tennessee State University)
- Dr. Brenna Tucker (Chemistry, University of Alabama at Birmingham)
Research
The Southeastern STEM Education Research Conference (S²ERC) is a primary research dissemination venue for STEM Education researchers and partners. The conference committee defines research as a process of systematic inquiry that entails collection of data; documentation of critical information; and analysis and interpretation of that data/information, in accordance with suitable methodologies set by specific professional fields and academic disciplines. The committee encourages submissions from educational researchers within the individual disciplines of science education, technology education, engineering education, and mathematics education, and is especially interested in submissions from researchers who are working to cross boundaries between STEM disciplines. A goal of the conference is to support interdisciplinary collaboration and to foster integrated STEM education research across the region. We encourage submissions from researchers studying all levels of STEM education, including preK-12 STEM education, undergraduate STEM education, and graduate STEM education. Moreover, the conference is intended as a welcoming environment for feedback and exchange among all levels of STEM education, including early-career educational researchers and graduate students.
Keynote Speaker
We are very excited to introduce our Keynote Speaker for this year's conference:
Tessa Andrews, PhD
Dr. Andrews is an Associate Professor of Genetics at the University of Georgia. She specializes in biology education research and aims for her research to inform and support the effective and widespread implementation of evidence-based teaching strategies in undergraduate STEM classrooms. Dr. Andrews studies faculty and the specialized teaching knowledge they use to plan and carry out evidence-based teaching. She also studies the systems in which faculty work, such as departments and institutions, and how these systems can be reformed to better encourage, incentivize, and reward evidence-based teaching. Dr. Andrews’ work has been funded by multiple grants from the National Science Foundation, including a CAREER award. Her contributions as a teacher have been recognized by awards from the Morehead Honors College, University of Georgia, and the University System of Georgia. Dr. Andrews is a Monitoring Editor for CBE-Life Sciences Education and a Working Group Leader for the Accelerating Systemic Change Network. She earned a BS in Psychology, a PhD in Biological Sciences, and a Certificate of College Teaching from Montana State University.
Her Keynote address titled, Making the Most of Active Learning: The Role of Teaching Expertise will focus on the specialized teaching knowledge that faculty use to plan and carry out active-learning instruction in large classes. Though active-learning instruction can be highly effective at supporting student learning and reducing opportunity gaps, the results instructors achieve vary considerably. Dr. Andrews will present results from a series of published papers and ongoing research. These results reveal teaching knowledge that facilitates effective active-learning instruction and teaching knowledge that may limit the impact of active learning on students.
The research conference will take place in the new 160,0000- square-feet Lab Science Commons. Our TN Tech interactive campus map may be helpful. Below will be additional directions as well as hotel recommendations.
