IMEEA will administer a Regional Workshop Program in which participants can do the following:

1. IMEEA:Infusing Models for Enhancing Faculty Capacity as Educators, Evaluating Faculty Change Processes, and Assessing Student Understanding into the National Dialogue on Improving STEM Education As a participant in the Regional Workshops Program, you are part of a three pronged effort (called IMEEA) to improve teaching of environmental science at the undergraduate level and to study the changes in your teaching and your students’ learning that result from this improvement. Mark Connolly, Sue Daffinrud, Susan Millar (UW-Madison LEAD Center, NSF Grants #0127725 and #86276) James Haynes (SUNY College at Brockport) and Michele Hluchy (Alfred University) (NSF Grant #9255415) Rick Iuli (University of Rochester, NSF Grant #0127725) • To study whether Regional Workshops have long-term effects on participants’ teaching practices, IMEEA will look at the following factors: • Characteristics and predispositions of faculty who participate in workshops such as RWP; • What participants gain from the workshop (immediately and long-term), and which elements of the workshop influenced those gains; • Kinds of constraints, opportunities and support faculty encounter as they incorporate ideas from the workshop into their teaching. • IMEEA will collect and analyze the following information periodically over four years: • Survey and syllabi data from all participants • Interview data from 16 participants for the development of case studies • The IMEEA will study the effect of workshop participation on student learning in participants’ classrooms. To this end, IMEEA will assess students in courses modified by the 16 case study participants to determine whether their students have: • Integrated new science concepts with existing concepts; • Developed understanding of science concepts at appropriate levels; and, • Developed positive attitudes about science disciplines • As student learning is dependent upon the goals of the instructor, IMEEA will use concept mapping and interviews to: • Determine the instructor’s learning goals • The extent to which the students achieve the instructor’s goals • IMEEA will use the web-based Student Assessment of Learning Gains instrument to collect data on students’ perceptions of their own gains in learning and attitudes. • IMEEA will administer a Regional Workshop Program in which participants can do the following: • ·Learn and adapt new science ideas • ·Learn about and adapt Environmental Problem Solving (EPS) curricula and instruction • ·Learn and adapt tested methods for assessing student learning • ·Learn how to write grants for improving science education • ·Strengthen their capacity for: • §reflecting thoughtfully on their teaching; and • §acting as an agent of change within department and institution to improve teaching • ·Begin to develop a community of practice that centers around the improvement of teaching