Session 197: Roundtable: Smarter Outreach through Coordinated Efforts across Centers and Disciplines

Organizer and Chair: Guven Peter Witteveen, University of Michigan

Discussants: Dilip Das, University of Michigan; Charley Sullivan, University of Michigan; Suiwah Chan, University of Michigan; Sylvia Meloche, University of Michigan

Keywords: outreach, national resource centers, K–12 education.

The field of outreach is expanding and becoming more responsive to its several constituents. In the case of K–12 outreach, young people and their teachers are presented with appealing ways to link their learning with ways of life overseas. Yet a number of perennial problems in outreach remain. The object of this roundtable is to discuss these in a semi-structured way, seeking audience expertise as much as the views of table participants. Problems include: isolated, ad hoc or one-time efforts (instead of systematic and sustained work), continuity of effort when personnel turn over regularly (instead of trying the same topics and approaches), means of sharing or modeling one’s best outreach with peers (instead of leaving one’s work and experiences gained on the shelf or in a folder), estimating value of each outreach form (instead of regarding all efforts as holding equal worth), and channels for collaborative outreach projects (instead of limiting one’s work to one’s nearby, familiar pool of colleagues). Both grant-funded centers, as well as internally funded ones, are pressed to achieve greater results for fewer dollars. The answers lie in working smarter. At the conclusion of the roundtable, a number of concrete suggestions should emerge. By formally listing the roundtable, instead of relegating it to an informal get-together, off the record, the visibility of outreach as such will be advanced.