Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) — Advancing what works in STEM education

Upcoming National Events

2013 PKAL Summer Leadership Institutes for STEM Faculty

July 23-28, 2013 and July 30 - August 4, 2013
Baca Campus of Colorado College
Crestone, CO
Institute website

The PKAL Summer Leadership Institute is designed for early and mid-career STEM faculty engaged in leading projects aimed at transforming undergraduate STEM education in their classrooms, departments, and institutions. These five-day intensive institutes provide faculty participants with the theory and practice required to act as agents of change in their home institutions or professional societies. They are held in the heart of the Rocky Mountains at the Baca Campus of Colorado College in Crestone, Colorado. PKAL is in its 15th year of offering the Summer Leadership Institutes.

Past National Events

Project Kaleidoscope Sessions & Events at AAC&U's Annual Meeting

AAC&U Annual Meeting
January 23-26, 2013
Atlanta, Georgia / Hyatt Regency Hotel
Meeting website

Network for Academic Renewal Conference

November 8-10, 2012
Kansas City, Missouri
Meeting website

Next Generation STEM Learning: Investigate, Innovate, Inspire will focus on how colleges, community colleges, and universities of all sorts can articulate, expand, measure, and track what works to advance students’ achievement of key learning outcomes, emphasizing scientific literacy, quantitative reasoning, analytical thinking, and visionary leadership.

Leadership for Change in STEM Education
A Post-Conference Workshop Following the AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference: Next Generation STEM Learning: Investigate, Innovate, Inspire

November 10, 2012
Kansas City, Missouri
Meeting website

Next Generation STEM Learning conference attendees are invited to participate in a post-conference workshop to continue the conversation on “what works” in STEM education from conference speakers and sessions. The workshop will help participants reflect on the conference, and then frame what they have learned in terms of leadership actions back on campus. Enjoy fellowship with other STEM education leaders as we share and learn from one another. For PKAL F21 members, this will be an opportunity to reunite. With the aim of deepening participants’ thinking about their leadership strengths and capacities, the workshop will feature one of PKAL’s signature experiential leadership exercises. Participants will leave the workshop with a plan of action for improved STEM education on their campuses.

Leadership for Interdisciplinary STEM Teaching and Learning
A Pre-Conference Workshop Preceding the AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference: Next Generation STEM Learning: Investigate, Innovate, Inspire

Co-sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) and the American Conference of Academic Deans (ACAD)

November 8, 2012
Kansas City, Missouri
Meeting website

This workshop will provide academic administrators the opportunity to explore practices for establishing and leading interdisciplinary academic programs in STEM areas. Although much of the discussion will be focused on STEM areas, the workshop is appropriate for those in non-STEM disciplines and programs. Key questions addressed will include: Why should higher education focus on interdisciplinary learning? How can educators foster interdisciplinary learning and problem-solving cultures? What leadership strategies for interdisciplinary programs work best in different institutional contexts? Participants will consider how to put ideas from the workshop into practice through a robust mix of interactive discussions and time to develop individual action plans.

2012 PKAL Summer Leadership Institutes for STEM Faculty

July 17 - 22, 2012 and July 31 - August 5, 2012
Baca Campus of Colorado College
Crestone, CO
Meeting website

The PKAL Summer Leadership Institute is designed for early and mid-career STEM faculty engaged in leading projects aimed at transforming undergraduate STEM education in their classrooms, departments and institutions. These five-day intensive institutes provide faculty participants with the theory and practice required to act as agents of change in their home institutions or professional societies. They are held in the heart of the Rocky Mountains at the Baca Campus of Colorado College in Crestone, Colorado. PKAL is in its 14th year of offering the Summer Leadership Institutes.

Mobilizing Disciplinary Societies on Behalf of our Students . . . and our PlanetProject Planning Meeting

May 4-6, 2012
American Chemical Society
Washington, DC
Meeting website

Keck/PKAL STEM Education Framework Project Meeting I (by invitation only)

April 26-27, 2012
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton, CA
Meeting website

Action Lab II (by invitation only)
Ramping Up for STEM Success Project

March 20-22, 2012
Seattle, Washington
(in advance of AAC&U's Network for Academic Renewal Conference, Student Success: Pushing Boundaries, Raising Bars, March 22-24)
Meeting website

PKAL Sessions at AAC&U's Annual Meeting

January 25-28, 2012
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Washington, DC
Meeting website

2011 Learning Spaces Collaboratory National Colloquium

November 4-6, 2011
Westfields Marriott
Chantilly, Virginia
Meeting website

The 2011 LSC Colloquium is designed for the collective exploration of basic questions at the intersection of research and practice in the realm of planning 21st century learning spaces for 21st century learners. Attention will be given to research domains as diverse as cognitive science, learning sciences, social psychology, organizational and pedagogical change, and from communities of practitioners equally diverse: senior academic administrators, libraries, pedagogical pioneers, physical plant officers, architects, and other design and construction professionals.

Action Lab I (by invitation only)
Ramping Up for STEM Success Project

September 30 - October 1, 2011
Indianapolis, Indiana
(in advance of STEMtech Conference, October 2-5)
Meeting website

Undergraduate Neuroscience Education: Resourcing the Curriculum, Improving Pedagogy and Programs, and Expanding our Disciplinary Horizons
The 2011 Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience Workshop commemorating 20 years of training tomorrow's neuroscientists today.

July 29-31, 2011
Pomona College
Claremont, California
Meeting website

2011 PKAL Summer Leadership Institutes for STEM Faculty

July 12-17, 2011 and July 19-24, 2011
Baca Campus of Colorado College
Crestone, CO
Meeting website

The PKAL Summer Leadership Institute is designed for early and mid-career STEM faculty engaged in leading projects aimed at transforming undergraduate STEM education in their classrooms, departments and institutions. These five-day intensive institutes provide faculty participants with the theory and practice required to act as agents of change in their home institutions or professional societies and are held in the heart of the Rocky Mountains at the Baca Campus of Colorado College in Crestone, Colorado. This year is the 13th summer PKAL has run the Summer Leadership Institutes.

PKAL Learning Spaces Collaboratory (LSC) Workshop

June 18, 2011
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, MA
Meeting website

Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices
Network for Academic Renewal Conference

March 24-26, 2011
Hilton Miami Downtown
Miami, FL
Meeting website

Project Kaleidoscope, in partnership with AAC&U, announces the 2011 Network for Academic Renewal conference, Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices. This interactive, hands-on conference will help campuses adapt, scale up, and sustain effective practices in STEM teaching and learning. The conference is designed for participants who wish to develop faculty and institutional leadership in STEM reform, broaden student participation and success in STEM fields, better assess engaged STEM learning in both the majors and general education, and connect the revitalization of STEM learning with ongoing campus work in Liberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP).

PKAL Sessions at AAC&U's Annual Meeting

January 26-29, 2011
Hyatt Regency Hotel
San Francisco, CA
Meeting website

Faculty Roles in Undergraduate Research Workshop
At the AAC&U Network for Academic Renewal Conference on Undergraduate Research In and Across the Disciplines

November 11, 2010
Washington Duke Inn
Durham, NC
Meeting website

Workshop participants will explore strategies for moving engaged learning to the center of faculty work. Using undergraduate research as a case study, facilitators and participants will examine expanding mainstream pedagogies to include engaged learning; re-conceptualizing the faculty role as engaged teacher-scholar; and redefining faculty workloads to include a full array of high-impact experiences.

What We Know About Planning Learning Spaces and What We Still Need to Know
PKAL Learning Spaces Collaboratory National Colloquium

November 5-7, 2010
Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles
Chantilly, Virginia
Meeting website

2010 PKAL/Keck National Colloquium on Leadership in Interdisciplinary (ID) STEM Learning

October 15-16, 2010
Grand Hyatt Washington Hotel
Washington, DC
Meeting website

The Keck/PKAL National Colloquium is the conclusion and celebration of a three-year project, during which campus teams have been engaged in interdisciplinary STEM education projects, ranging from interdisciplinary general education and first year experience programs to interdisciplinary courses in teacher education and majors programs in environmental science, neuroscience and human biology. The work of the campus teams has been focused on making recommendations and defining successful strategies in three key areas:

Interdisciplinary STEM learning and assessment
Institutional vision, cultures and practices
Leadership and institutional change

The National Colloquium is designed to engage participants, including members of Keck/PKAL project teams, in developing a strategic leadership action agenda to advance interdisciplinary STEM learning--for all students.

Quantifying Quantitative Reasoning in Undergraduate Education: Alternative Strategies for the Assessment of Quantitative Reasoning
A workshop co-sponsored by Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) and the QuIRK initiative

October 8-10, 2010
Carleton College
Northfield, MN
Meeting website

PKAL Summer Leadership Institute for Early Career Faculty

July 17-22, 2010
Baca Campus of Colorado College
Crestone, Colorado
Meeting website

The 2010 Summer Leadership Institute is for early-career STEM faculty engaged with transforming undergraduate STEM education in their classrooms and departments to apply for the 2010 PKAL Summer Leadership Institute. It is designed to enhance the leadership capacity and ability for early career faculty to act as agents of change within their home institutions or professional societies to reform STEM education. The Summer Institute will be held July 17 – 22, 2010 in the heart of the Rocky Mountains at the Baca Campus of Colorado College in Crestone, Colorado. It is the 11th Summer Leadership Institute.

Spring Interdisciplinary Leadership Roundtable

April 9-11, 2010
Mt. Washington Conference Center
Baltimore, MD
Meeting website

The meeting goals included: 1) identification of key leadership factors required to foster successful and sustainable interdisciplinary programs in different campus contexts, including barriers and ways to overcome them 2) development of institutional models of institutional leadership - organizational structures, practices, and policies - that provide the administrative, financial, physical, and cultural infrastructures needed to facilitate interdisciplinary learning over the long-term and 3) outline of a leadership handbook and contributions to the Facilitating Interdisciplinary STEM Learning National Colloquium and final project report.

Welcome Reception and Conversation with PKAL Director, Susan Elrod

March 31, 2010
American Society for Microbiology
Washington, DC
Meeting website

Sharing Our Work: A MnSCU-PKAL Showcase Featured at Realizing Student Potential Conference

February 26-27, 2010
Minneapolis Community & Technical College
Minneapolis, MN
Meeting website

Learning Outcomes and Learning Spaces

February 6, 2010
Linfield College
McMinnville, OR
Meeting website

This workshop was of value to campuses at an early stage in shaping and reshaping learning spaces for undergraduate communities of learners. During the one-day workshop, participants: explored “learning spaces that work” to help students reach learning outcomes, identified key questions and processes by which those spaces were imagined, realized and assessed, and developed short- and long-term agendas for transforming learning spaces

PKAL Sessions at AAC&U Annual Meeting

January 20-23, 2010
Grand Hyatt Hotel
Washington, DC
Meeting website

AAC&U and PKAL have joined forces to advance and amplify work on improving undergraduate education in mathematics, technology, and the various fields of science and engineering (STEM) in colleges and universities across the country. The 2010 Annual Meeting marked a milestone in the partnership between AAC&U and Project Kaleidoscope with several PKAL sessions featured at the meeting.

PKAL Workshop at 2010 NCSE National Conference
An Integrated Approach to Addressing Sustainability in Undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Learning Environments

January 20, 2010
Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center
Washington, DC
Meeting website