Virginia Tech® home

CENI Newsletter — March 2023

March 1, 2023

Subscribe to the CENI Newsletter

* indicates required

It is always a good feeling when your hard work is recognized, isn’t it?

This month’s newsletter starts with a trove of accomplishments and awards recently earned by our CENI team members. From lifetime accomplishments to early career break-outs, I am proud and thankful to be surrounded by such brilliance and dedication! Congratulations Emily, Ashley, Chelsea, and Phyllis!  Read on to see features on Dr. Glen Holmes, our new student employees, and do not miss the info about signing up to exhibit at ICAT Creativity + Innovation Day, attending our upcoming broader impacts events, and learning more about our students’ work in the ENGE 2524 service learning course.  

Good work everyone!
Lisa

Lisa McNair
Deputy Executive Director, Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology
Director, Center for Educational Networks and Impacts
Professor, Department of Engineering Education

ICAT Creativity + Innovation Day 

The time has come for our eleventh ICAT Creativity + Innovation Day! This annual celebration is hosted by the Institute of Creativity, Arts, and Technology to engage and connect the public to the latest creative and innovative works of students and faculty members. This year’s theme is Beyond where we will focus on the kinds of work people do beyond a transdisciplinary education, how disciplines and identity are intertwined, and how that can help and transform. The day will include a panel discussion, project exhibits that transcend disciplines, and more. Exhibitors will have the opportunity to showcase their expertise and work to visitors and build beneficial partnerships for support or funding. ICAT invites you to share your work! The celebration will be held on Monday, May 1, 2023, at the Moss Arts Center. Exhibits must be staffed from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. If you are interested, please fill out the exhibit proposal form by March 17, 2023. The form includes a timeline with important dates as follows: 

  • 3/17: Let us know if you are interested in sharing your innovative technologies and creative work.
  • 4/15: You'll share your completed project work for the web page, including updated descriptive text and a short video.
  • 5/1: We will gather to share and discuss projects with the public.

Congratulations CENI Team Members!

Emily Burns Among Nutshell Games Winners
Pictured left to right: Emily Ellis, Holly Funkhouser, Emily Burns, Kayla Alward, and Zuleka Woods.
Pictured left to right: Emily Ellis, Holly Funkhouser, Emily Burns, Kayla Alward, and Zuleka Woods.

Join us in congratulating Emily Burns, a PhD student in higher education and one of CENI’s graduate student researchers, for being a winner at the Nutshell Games. At the February 8 event, graduate student contestants competed in giving 90-second presentations on a wide range of research topics. Emily presented her research on "Meeting Disabled College Students' Access Needs."

Phyllis Newbill Receives Silver Beaver Award

Phyllis Newbill • Image by Tara Bryant
Phyllis Newbill • Image by Tara Bryant

For her work with troops and camps in the Boy Scouts of America, Phyllis was awarded the Silver Beaver Award. This award is the highest award a council can give to a volunteer, representing sustained volunteerism and service. 

Ashley Costello Named to Editorial Board

Photograph of
Ashley Costello

Ashley Costello, a Ph.D. student in higher education and graduate research assistant for CENI, was named to the Editorial Board for the Journal of Trauma Studies in Education. The journal is an open-access academic and peer-reviewed journal that focuses on mental health and well-being while exploring the impact of traumatic stress within K-12 and Higher Education learning environments. Ashley will be applying both her research interests of exploring how to create more conducive higher education learning environments for trauma-impacted students and her past practitioner knowledge of working with trauma-impacted populations as a social worker to the role of reviewer.

Ashley Costello Presents Evaluation Study at EERA

Ashley Costello
Ashley Costello

Ashley Costello presented a paper on an evaluation study titled, "Visitor Engagement Framework within an Informal University Learning Environment" at the Eastern Educational Research Conference (EERA) in February in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Ashley presented the preliminary observational findings of Hokie for a Day program evaluation on behalf of co-authors Baitong Liu, Faika Tahir, Chelsea Haines, and Phyllis Newbill.

Chelsea Haines Receives Mentor of the Month Award

Chelsea Haines pictured standing outside in front of brick building.
Dr. Chelsea Haines

Dr. Chelsea Haines received the Mentor of the Month award from the Virginia Tech Graduate School. She was nominated by graduate students Baby Faika Tahir Jan and Ashley Costello for empathetic mentoring while providing opportunities for research and career development. A nominator shared: “Within a short amount of time working under her supervision I had learned valuable skills. She included me in projects that I thought [were] beyond my abilities, but with her trust and guidance, I was able to excel. She never hesitated to give credit to her students to acknowledge their work and efforts.”

Meet the Campus Engagement Network: Dr. Glen Holmes

Dr. Holmes in a blue suit jacket in front of a tree with the sunlight shining on green leaves in the background.
Dr. Glen Holmes

This month’s featured Campus Engagement Network member is Dr. Glen Holmes, an associate director and collegiate professor (Instructional Design and Technology) in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech, a Master’s degree from Radford University, and a Doctor of Education degree from Virginia Tech. Dr. Holmes has a passion for education and is a member of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and American Educational Research Association (AERA). A well-respected researcher, Dr. Holmes is also a jazz enthusiast! 

Meet the New CENI Student Employees

Allie Phillips
Allie Phillips

Hi! My name is Allie Phillips and I am a first-year geoscience major at Virginia Tech. I hope to use this degree to study other planets. In my free time, I enjoy all sorts of outdoor activities like backpacking, paddle boarding, and caving. In regards to CENI, I am excited to be an Office Assistant and help out behind the scenes.

Nicolas Spring
Nicolas Spring

My name is Nicolas Spring and I am a first-year history major from Damascus, Maryland. I am excited to be joining the CENI team as an Undergraduate Research Assistant. I hope to be able to make a positive difference within the CENI team and throughout Virginia Tech. When I am not studying or working, I love to be outdoors, play tennis, and spend time with friends and family. 

Service Learning Course Update

Students, sitting in desks, have their attention drawn to the front of the room where a powerpoint slide titled "How we Gauged Feedback during our Activities" is displayed.
Pictured presenting: Baibhav Nepal

A special thank you to Baibhav Nepal, a first-year general engineering major, and Calvin Jeter, a junior electrical engineering major, for sharing past service learning projects with Wonder Universe: A Children’s Museum and Floyd High School to this semester’s ENGE 2524: Exploring Service Learning Through STEM/STEAM Outreach class. This spring, students are working with Dr. Kristy Collins and Kids Tech University to offer hands-on STEM/STEAM activities for children ages 9-12. Students are also receiving training on communicating with children and educational outreach from Dr. Phyllis Newbill and Ms. Kim Keith. These service learning opportunities for Virginia Tech students are made possible in part through CENI’s Educator Liaison Network and Campus Engagement Network. For any questions about the service learning course, including how you might include it in your grant’s Broader Impacts or to propose a service learning project, contact the instructor Dr. Chelsea Haines.

Broader Impacts

Broader Impacts 101

Thursday, May 4, 1:30-3 pm
Creativity + Innovation District (CID) Multipurpose Library

Many funding agencies now require impacts that extend beyond an academic audience to benefit broader society. The Center for Educational Networks and Impacts (CENI) housed within the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) collaborates with university researchers to develop and evaluate broader impacts plans that are mutually beneficial to researchers and the public. CENI leverages established networks of university faculty and staff who do educational outreach, as well as formal and informal educators from organizations such as preK-12 school districts, museums, maker spaces, and the Virginia Tech Science Festival. These networks help faculty share their research with public audiences in ways that benefit communities. In this session, Drs. Chelsea Haines and Phyllis Newbill will share processes and support available to Virginia Tech researchers, followed by a panel that will share their experiences with successful collaborations.

Contact: Chelsea Haines

CENI and Partners in the News

CENI Educator Liaison Corner

Montgomery County Public Schools

Eighth-grade Earth Science classes at Blacksburg Middle School explored geologic time when  Amy Hagen, a Ph.D. student in sedimentary geochemistry visited. Students engaged in completing a geologic time scale activity, learned different ways geologists identify the age of rocks and fossils, and why geologic time matters.

Students stand near a timeline taped to the wall.

Christiansburg High School Art IV and AP Art students enjoyed meeting visiting artist Anne Samat at the Moss Arts Center. During the discussion, students were able to gain insight into Anne’s background, her creative process, and her inspiration for making art. Students explored the gallery and participated in some hands-on paper weaving and collage techniques inspired by the artist. 

Shawsville Middle School 7th graders appreciated spending the day on campus and began their day by listening to the Grammy-nominated PUBLIQuartet and learning about the influence of music between 1893 and today. After lunch at D2, Dr. Kristy Collins, Director of Outreach and Education at Fralin Life Science Institute, showed Shawsville students how sweet science can be! Students visited Fralin to take part in a candy DNA activity and learned about nucleotides and how they pair to create DNA sequences. Creating DNA models is fun and tasty! 

Interested in partnering with MCPS? Contact Amy Guerin. 

Radford City Public Schools

Radford High School students attended a hip hop workshop sponsored by Craig Arthur and KoDa Hamilton with Virginia Tech Digging in the Crates (VT-DITC).

Radford High School sophomores attended their second of four Passport to Career and College sessions with Karen Eley Sanders through VT’s College Access Collaborative.

Radford 4th grade students enjoyed a day on campus while attending the PUBLIQuartet matinee at Moss Arts Center. 

Virginia Tech Roanoke Center

Optimize Your Makerspace

On Friday March 24, 2023, from 9 am- 4:30 pm Ashley Sloan, the lead instructor from the Thinkabit Lab at the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center, will host an Optimize Your Makerspace event for educators. Throughout the day, participants can expect to be exposed to a range of topics, including: Makerspace background and goals; crafts vs. science; engagement at any age; evaluations, grant possibilities, and funding; sparking community involvement, and microcontrollers and micropython. With the price of registration ($225), participants will receive lunch and materials. A limited number of complimentary registrations are available, contact Ashley Sloan to find out more. Register soon, so you do not miss out on this opportunity. 

Science Museum of Western Virginia

SMWV is currently accepting enrollments for our 2023 Spring Break Day Camps! This year is “Rock Hunters,” where students will learn about geology and earth sciences through hands-on experiments and activities. Spring Breakers will also have a chance to visit the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center for rock-hunting coding activities! “Rock Hunters” will run from March 27th – March 31st and April 3rd – April 7th. Students in grades 2-5 can be registered today.

Registration for SMWV’s 2023 Summer Camps opens on March 1, 2023. This summer’s programming will be offered to children in grades K-5, with a shorter weekday program for middle schoolers (Monday-Wednesday). Camps will feature STEM experiments and activities; live animal demos; visits to the Virginia Tech Roanoke Center for coding and design programs; and speakers from Virginia Tech, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and elsewhere! Dates and themes for Summer Camps can be found below:

  • 6/12-6/16: Sea Explorers (Oceanography)
  • 6/19-6/23: Engineer for a Week (Engineering)
  • 6/26-6/30: Dino Dig (Paleontology)
  • 7/10-7/14: Going Green (Environmental Science)
  • 7/17-7/21: Out of this World (Astronomy/Space Exploration)
  • 7/24-7/28: Get a Clue (Forensic Sciences)
  • 7/31-8/4: Camp Coders (Robotics/Computer Science)
  • 8/7-8/11: Fantastic Forces (Physics)
  • 8/14-8/18: Imagination Station (K-2nd) (Design) | Camp Candy (3rd-8th) (Chemistry)

Please direct any questions about camp programming to the Director of Education, Katie Brooks, or Assistant Director of Education, Lesley St. Clair. Registration will be accessible on March 1, 2023.

Highlights from the Campus Engagement Network

VT Engage Faculty Fellows Grant Cycle Now Open!

Faculty Fellows Grant Opportunity is now available. Apply by March 12 for the chance to design a new course, develop partnerships within the community, collaborate with community partners to strengthen your projects, and increase public exposure of your work through VT Engage. For more information, including a program overview and submission process, please visit the Faculty Fellows page on the VT Engage website. 

Science on Tap - New River Valley

Date/Time: Wednesday, March 22, 5:30 pm
Location: Rising Silo Brewery (2351 Glade Road, Blacksburg)

Join Camilla Hughes at "There's No Getting Over It: You Owe Your Life to an Ovary."

Fralin Life Sciences Institute

CENI's friends at the Fralin Life Sciences Institute are looking for volunteers to help out at the International Street Fair on Sunday, April 23rd. Set up begins at 10:30 am and the main event will be held from 12-6 pm. Fralin Life Sciences Institute needs volunteers to sign up and assist the kids with the arts and crafts. 

Wonder Universe

Wonder Universe hosts weekly Toddler Time on Wednesdays, bi-weekly Story Time events, and monthly Tiny Explorers sensory art programming. Check our Facebook page for all the latest information on upcoming programming.

Wonder Universe continues to seek STEM Saturday volunteers for the winter and beyond. Please email, if interested in volunteering to host a Saturday morning STEM exploration activity at the museum (it's a great way to address your broader impacts!)

 

Upcoming Deadlines and Events

Please submit items to Chelsea (cehaines@vt.edu) for CENI newsletters.