Inspire - Programs and Projects

The Virginia Tech Science Festival is our annual celebration of science as a way of thinking held since 2014. This family-friendly event draws thousands of attendees to Blacksburg from the New River Valley and beyond. Festival guests participate in hands-on activities, see engaging demonstrations, and talk one-on-one with practicing scientists. Expect everything from robotics to ecology to art. To learn more about the Virginia Tech Science Festival, contact CENI.

Hokie for a Day field trips offer students in participating fifth-grade classes a unique opportunity to experience college life. The visit includes information about the path to college and college majors, an expo with hands-on academic experiences provided by Virginia Tech faculty and students, lunch at a campus dining hall, and an opportunity to meet a Hokie student-athlete. If you are a 5th-grade teacher at a Title I school that is represented in our Educator Liaison Network, please contact your school system’s liaison to discuss participation in Hokie for a Day.

The CENI Educator Liaison Network maintains an active community of practice inclusive of regional museum and school system representatives. Liaisons initiate, sustain, and document relationships between Virginia Tech and their home institutions. They coordinate field trips to Virginia Tech and bi-directionally facilitate requests for grants, activities, and projects, connecting faculty to audiences for broader impacts opportunities. If you are interested in working with local youth as part of your research or outreach program, please contact CENI.

Broader Impacts must be included in your NSF grant budget. While there is no set requirement for expenditures on broader impacts activities, previous national guidelines have recommended 10% or more of your budget be allocated to societal impacts. Advancing Research Impact in Society (ARIS) has developed several tools to assist in your broader impacts planning.

Broader impact activities take many different forms and are executed on a variety of scales. The following examples are for illustrative purposes; specific costs are project-specific and depend on the proposed activities and partners involved:

• Hokie for a Day: $1,000 per year for participant support costs to fund travel teachers and 5th-grade students to attend the program in Blacksburg.

• Virginia Tech Science Festival: $1,000 for participant support costs (travel) and 1% effort per year for the CENI Associate Director who oversees the event and administers the evaluation process. With support from numerous research grants, this event annually engages thousands of attendees from the regional community and beyond and has successfully demonstrated to funders the capacity for effective and efficient broader impact.

• Lab Visits: $2,500 per visit supports a charter bus to bring regional high school students to Virginia Tech to visit a lab, learn about innovative science, and engage with faculty and graduate students.

• After-School Program: $7,500 supports teacher stipends and materials for an innovative learning experience for youth.

• Teacher Professional Development Workshop: $15,000 funds a two-day immersive program for 15 regional teachers, including stipends and travel expenses.

• Science Museum Partnership: $35,000-$60,000 funds planning, creation, installation, and maintenance of a museum exhibit.

If you are interested in participating in any of CENI’s community engagement programs, please contact us to discuss your ideas. We generally need 3-4 weeks' notice to review your proposal and to provide a letter of support/collaboration. If you require a letter of support from one of our education partners, this timeline can be much longer due to approval processes, which vary by school system; we recommend starting this process at least 10 weeks before the letter is required. Please note that many of our public school partners will not review requests outside of their academic year since many teachers are not 12-month employees.

ICAT Creativity + Innovation Day is a public showcase at the nexus of science, engineering, art, and design (SEAD). Hosted by the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology at the Moss Arts Center, it is held annually on the last Monday of spring semester, usually in early May. Participants from middle school to adult join us for a full day of fun and thought-provoking interactions. For information contact Phyllis Newbill.