��������

The Irwin L. Slesnick STEM Education Symposium will take place from 11:45 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday, May 4 in SMATE 220 on the Western Washington University Campus.

The event will be open to all students and faculty and is hosted by the Science, Mathematics and Technology (SMATE) Program. The symposium will focus on different aspects of science, technology, engineering and mathematics education through presentations and discussions.

The first speaker, Susan Elrod, is the Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater and is a nationally recognized leader and scholar in STEM higher education. Elrod will lead the first workshop called “Navigating the River of Change: Finding Your True North for STEM Teaching and Learning” from 12:30-1:50 p.m. Her Keynote presentation called “Keep Calm and Paddle On: A Model for Fostering Systematic Institutional Change for Student Success” is the final presentation and will take place in SMATE 150.

Speakers Jessica Cohen and Deborah Donovan will lead the second workshop from 2-3:20 p.m. titled “Student Learning in Today’s K-12 Classrooms: What Every Educator Should Know About Next Generation Science Standards, and Common Core State Standards in Mathematics.” Cohen is a faculty member in the Mathematics department at �������� with a research focus on the professional development of in-service teachers and higher education faculty. Donovan teaches at �������� in the Biology Department and studies marine invertebrates as part of the Science Education Group.

Speakers Emily Borda and Daniel Hanley will lead the third workshop from 3:30- 4:50 p.m. called “Creating and Using New End of Course Assessments to Support Active Learning in Classrooms.” Borda is a professor in Chemistry and SMATE at ��������. Her research interests include studying how students transfer ideas from once science discipline to another. Hanley directs an educational research and evaluation team at �������� and is the principal investigator of a $3 million National Science Foundation grant that examines how �������� prepares elementary teachers to teach science.

The symposium is made possible by the Irwin L. Slesnick STEM Education Fund donated to Western’s College of Science and Technology by Slesnick’s family. The fund provides permanent support for the SMATE department at Western.

While the symposium is free and open to the public, an RSVP is necessary. If interested, RSVP to Shannon Warren at shannon.warren@wwu.edu.

For more information on the symposium, contact Lori Torres, Western Washington University SMATE program support supervisor, at lori.torres@wwu.edu.