The University of South Carolina (UofSC), supported by the National Science Foundation, is pleased to announce the Institute in Measurement MEthodology in Rural STEM Education (IMMERSE). This professional development and research capacity-building training is directed to early- and mid-career scholars. The goal of IMMERSE is to increase the capacity of researchers to measure and study key concepts central to rural STEM education research. Drawing on measurement science and the unified validity framework, the IMMERSE training will enable rural researchers in STEM, social sciences, and education to undertake empirical studies that attend to rurality. Specifically, IMMERSE Fellows will obtain the skills to advance the field of rural STEM education research towards more consistent operational definitions and psychometrically sound measures of focal constructs such as place-based education and community engagement.
IMMERSE Fellows will be selected through a competitive application process aimed at identifying transdisciplinary rural researchers who wish to gain measurement skills for survey development in STEM education. Fellows will engage in an intensive 3-day summer training with hands-on working sessions focusing on the development of constructs and surveys in rural STEM education. Following the summer training, Fellows will be provided ongoing instruction, mentoring, and feedback on their measurement research projects for a calendar year from core faculty and nationally recognized experts in measurement methodology and rural STEM education. Fellows will present the results of their measure development projects at a virtual summit the following summer. Through a partnership with the National Rural Education Association (NREA), the measures developed by IMMERSE Fellows will become part of a repository on their website for other rural researchers to use.
The summer institute will be held on July 24 – 26, 2023 in Columbia, South Carolina. Participants (not employed by the University of South Carolina) will receive a stipend, as well as support covering travel, lodging, group meals, training materials, virtual workshop fees, and NREA conference fees. The application deadline is Friday, March 12, 2023 (11:59 pm Eastern time). Please see the IMMERSE website for further information.
Contact Dr. Angie Starrett via email ([email protected]) if you have any questions.