Education & Human Resource Development

The STEPS educational goal is to recruit, train, and graduate a diverse cadre of intersectional researchers who are prepared for the type of convergent research necessary to spur innovation and agile cross-functional collaborations. Specific STEPS objectives are to:

• Build students’ core technical knowledge across the STEPS domain space to enable participation in convergence research;
• Develop core competencies of high-performing teams and to impart evidence-based strategies and skills to work on problems at the boundaries between disciplines and sectors;
• Assess STEPS research education strategies to document the efficacy of a convergence research approach, particularly as it relates to the experiences of women and underrepresented minority (URM) students.

Achieving these objectives aligns with the Center-wide convergence strategies, rooting project work in the TBL Scenario framework, utilizing convergence boundary objects to link across TBL Scenarios and Themes 1-3, and including iterative program modification based on input from formal assessments.

Outreach and Instructional Materials

Led by Prof. Gail Jones, STEPS has created a number of instructional materials focused on phosphorus sustainability. These activities can help educators integrate phosphorus concepts into their science curriculum. Visit our Outreach and Instructional Materials page for all our resources.