Researchers from the Cornell Duffield College of Engineering played leading roles in organizing the inaugural Upstate New York Discipline-Based Education Research Conference, held June 11-12 in Weill Hall on Cornell’s Ithaca campus. The conference brought together faculty, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students from community colleges, liberal arts colleges and research universities across New York to build interdisciplinary partnerships in undergraduate STEM education while highlighting Cornell’s growing engineering education research community. The event also convened the broader Cornell Center for Interdisciplinary Discipline-Based Education Research (CIDER) cohort, supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) CIDER grant.
“The goal was to set the seeds for future collaboration and explore what the barriers are, as well as what could enable more work across institutions,” said Maggie Webb, a postdoctoral researcher in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering.
Among those organizing the conference were Webb; Cara Robertus, a postdoctoral researcher in engineering education in the R. F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; and Austin Zuckerman, a postdoctoral researcher in biology education. Together with colleagues from Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, they designed the conference to foster collaborative discussions that encouraged participants to identify new research partnerships and address shared challenges facing discipline-based education researchers. Organizers plan to synthesize ideas generated during the conference into a report or white paper to guide future statewide collaboration.
The organizers are also part of Cornell’s broader collaborative mentoring network, including faculty from the Duffield Engineering Education Research Institute. Alexandra Werth, assistant professor in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, and Alexandra Coso Strong, associate professor with co-appointments in the R.F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Systems Engineering, co-advise Webb. Robertus is co-advised by Allison Godwin, Dr. G. Stephen Irwin ’67, ’68 Professor of Engineering Education Research in the R.F. Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and Natasha Holmes, Ann S. Bowers Associate Professor of Physics in the College of Arts and Sciences. Holmes and Michelle Smith, Distinguished Professor of Arts & Sciences in ecology and evolutionary biology, are principal investigators on the NSF CIDER grant supporting the collaboration.
“Our intent was to create a space for researchers across disciplines and institutions in upstate New York to connect, build community, and explore avenues to interdisciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations,” Robertus said.
The conference reflects the growing importance of collaboration across engineering, science and mathematics education research as educators seek evidence-based approaches to improve student learning. By convening researchers from across New York, Duffield Engineering is helping shape both engineering education research and the evidence-based teaching practices that prepare the next generation of engineers and scientists.
