The Designing for Impact Project is an essential component of our mission, extending our work beyond the classroom to offer innovative STEM-focused PD not only to educators, but to professionals across various industries. By combining our expertise in educational outreach with a broader focus on STEM innovation, Designing for Impact strengthens our ability to influence and elevate teaching, learning, and professional practices across local, regional, national, and global levels.
Mission: To empower professionals through dynamic professional development events and strategic grassroots partnerships, fostering collaboration and innovation in STEM education. Our goal is to provide impactful learning experiences and resources that drive meaningful change and elevate educational practices across the local, regional, national, and global communities.
Goal: We accomplish our mission by adhering to three overarching goals. These guiding principles embody our operating philosophy, our primary product and supporting activities, and our expected outcomes.
- Goal #1: Exemplify a Grassroots Approach to Educational Reform: EO at RHIT aids professionals in meeting new reform guidelines – both state and national – that call for less dependence on textbooks, lectures, and de-contextualized lab work and more emphasis on inquiry-based learning containing real-world, problem-based scenarios. We think that transformations flourish best when nurtured by close relationships among small groups. Thus, we continue to grow the project through a grassroots approach to improving learning by partnering with various stakeholders. We envision EO at RH as a network connecting people and resources to form a powerful agent: a cadre of professionals and stakeholders who will traverse the gap between individual talent and systemic change.
- Goal #2: Provide a Suite of Services and Resources: From the beginning, EO at RHIT addressed the classic organizational problem of a knowledge / skills gap: what to do when new methods of operating advance more rapidly than members of the organization can meaningfully assimilate and implement. Thus, we have structured EO at RH to mediate between the wealth of instructional standards and most of the professionals’ ability to meaningfully integrate these advancements into their work and initiatives.
- Goal #3: Contribute to Global Workforce Enhancement: We are committed to helping young people graduate with the knowledge, responsibility, productivity, and employability needed for success. EO at RHIT fosters quality learning experiences by empowering educators and professionals alike with the critical skills and competencies necessary for success in today’s dynamic and evolving workplace, including technical, analytical, creative, and collaborative literacies.
