Curriculum/Faculty Development: The National Center for Science and Civic Engagement
As Director this project is my primary focus and responsibility. Here is where you will find the current e-news, announcements, a list of current initiatives. The signature faculty development program of the NCSCE is SENCER (Science Education for New Civic Engagements and Responsibilities Established in 2001 with funding from the NSF SENCER has impacted over 7000 STEM educators from 700 institutions and organizations. The SENCER approach to professional development continues to be the foundation of NCSCE’s work.
Curriculum: Science Education and Civic Engagement: An International Journal
For almost twenty years NCSCE has hosted an open-source journal devoted to courses, curricula, and programming that advance civically engaged science.
Collaboration: NSF Award # 2331708 Conference: From The Liberal Art of Science to The Liberating Art of Science: preparing students for science and society in the Mid-21st Century
The proposed project aimed to serve the national interest by improving science literacy for all undergraduate students. The project convened a workshop of thought leaders at AAAS in December 2025 across a variety of scientific disciplines and educational contexts to develop a model for science literacy that addresses contemporary challenges such as climate change, emerging infectious diseases, and science misinformation and disinformation. A report on the conferece is at the link in the title.
Collaboration: Alliance for Higher Education
The Alliance for Higher Education is a new coalition uniting all of higher education to defend and improve the Higher Education as a foundational pillar of democracy. NCSCE, as one of the conveners of the Liberal Art of Science Conference (cited above) has been invited to develop a STEM education working group to inform this project as it moves forward.
Collaboration: Academic Freedom, Human Rights, and the Right to Science (Formerly AAAS Coalition for Human Rights and Science) hosted by Scholars at Risk (SAR)
NCSCE is a new member organization of Scholars at Risk and will be working with them on programming that addresses academic freedom and the right to science as it it impacts science faculty research and teaching, as well as students, who are denied access to courses and curricula that addresses climate science, reproductive health, and a range of other issues.
Professional Development: Science Education as Civic Education: A Usable Past for STEM Reform – A RIOS Learning Community (held November-December 2025)
The focus of this learning community (LC) was to use primary documents and secondary sources to interrogate the claim that science and democracy share an “indissoluble” bond, as well as an “ethical orientation” and that fostering an understanding of that deep, structural connection is a fundamental aspect of civic education. As US science and democratic norms are both currently under assault by explicitly authoritarian and illiberal forces, it seemed an appropriate moment for educators to revisit the robust claims and convictions of this earlier generation of thinkers and leaders now referred to as “scientific democrats” and to consider their implications for our students and their learning. The LC will proceed chronologically from the early 20th century through the 1990’s, with the last sessions devoted to a collective consideration of how the idea of “scientific democracy” can be aligned with the remarkable gains in learning research since the 90’s, and implemented in the college classroom.