High school students from across Oregon explore the magic of chemistry at the fifth annual Juntos Chemistry Overnight Camp with chemist Chong Fang organizing and overseeing.
The College of Science is dedicated to serving our community and providing pathways for developing science literacy and engagement. By expanding our outreach, we aim to create access to science education and research, foster community relationships and develop needed services.
An implementation committee will develop a timeline for implementing, assessing and adapting the actions and tactics detailed in each of the plan’s four goals. The committee will also develop metrics and key indicators of success.
Expand our definitions and understanding of current and effective outreach & engagement efforts in the college.
Honor civil discourse to develop new, innovative and inclusive portfolios of activities that are important to our diverse community.
Partner across OSU campus to provide support to our community members in their outreach & engagement activities and efforts.
Internal & external partners include other local institutions of higher learning, alumni, industry, government and business partners, philanthropies, minority serving institutions and other institutions of higher education and friends of the college.
Support and expand the college’s inclusive engagement with industry and alumni partners to continue and expand support for students & faculty to conduct effective and impactful outreach and engagement
Connect with and solidify relationships with other regional institutions of higher education including minority serving institutions to advance science research and training endeavors
Develop and support engagement opportunities with other local and regional national science policy organizations, nonprofits and philanthropies working in science, education and policy spaces
Bring alumni and other OSU partners to campus to engage with our college community
Encourage working groups and interdepartmental initiatives to create innovative, far-reaching and sustainably resourced entrepreneurial programs that offer outreach and engagement opportunities to wide segments of our communities
Create equitable funding opportunities to support and expand outreach and engagement efforts in the college
Engage with business leaders, government partners and financial and intellectual investors to increase and expand our entrepreneurial potential, technological developments and product generation
Expand online, asynchronous and other nontraditional delivery modes that widen outreach and engagement to be more equitable and accessible
Develop robust and inclusive metrics to compile, measure effectiveness and then adjust our tactics in outreach and engagement
Use language, communication methods and assessment metrics that effectively embrace our wide and diverse constituencies
Create milestones for the expansion and funding of our priority outreach and engagement programs
Build upon visitation metrics (such as the number of in-person visitors to the OSU Portland Center, or the number of virtual visitations to our various outreach and engagement websites) to tally our progress in widening our outreach and engagement
Measure the sustainability of our initiatives both in terms of their year-to-year self-sustainability as outreach and engagement programs and in terms of our attention to carbon neutrality and the use of renewable resources
Routinely communicate about our efforts and successes and develop ways to reward innovative activities.
One way the College of Science is raising up the next generation of science leaders is ensuring they have the skills to effectively communicate about their research to a variety of audiences. Since 2016, Oregon State has joined forces with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, or OMSI, to provide our faculty, students and staff with the tools to communicate their science to broad audiences and build a culture of public engagement among science professionals. Participants display their work at OMSI in Portland.
The Inclusive Excellence @ Oregon State program aims to increase inclusion, equity and access for underrepresented minority students in STEM classes. The program aims to improve science education, promote leadership training and establish a sustainable model for faculty development that improves equitable and inclusive teaching. It is funded by a $1M Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Inclusive Excellence grant.
