"It's such a useful platform, to be able to share work widely among an interested group of researchers and educators, and the 3-minute time limit forces you to really focus on the key highlights of your program."
"The most salient benefit was the feeling that what I am doing matters and there is a community who is interested in what I do each day. The comments and questions were wonderful."
"It was a completely new experience for me. I expanded my networks and got to think about our project in new ways through different folks asking questions.
"The Showcase is a terrific opportunity to share our work with others and connect with other researchers & educators who are interested in similar avenues of research."
"I appreciate this opportunity to build a network of projects and researchers, and to disseminate work in an alternative format that is used beyond the actual showcase event."
"Creating the video was probably the most salient benefit because it offered us an opportunity to consider what was most important to the project."
"Making a video that easily digestible to a large audience was beneficial for our project overall, even outside of the showcase."
"I learned so many new skills putting this video together."
"Because the showcase encouraged us to make the video engaging and for a broad audience, it now feels like a much better way of explaining our work than sending a paragraph description, which is what we would have otherwise done."
"[It was an] opportunity to learn about related work-in-progress via forum and formats more accessible than traditional conference."
"It was most interesting to find the variety of ways people adjusted due to the pandemic, and how they were similar to what we had to do. It provided insight and confirmation."
"It provided a rich landscape of STEM education research across the nation."
"We are doing work on COVID education, which is changing rapidly. In this fluid world, finding out what others are doing is especially valuable."
"I saw different ways of approaching broadening participation that are helpful for us in the conceptualization of the next stage of our work..."
"Definitely looked up some papers/work from other presenters in projects related to my work. Hoping to cite them in publications!"
"We were contacted by a foundation that is interested in funding our work."
"I have been able to establish communications with a number of presenters at various institutions, including Bethune-Cookman University, University of Idaho, Tuskegee University, and University of Texas at Arlington."
"Loved the layout of this program over several days and made some wonderful connections with new colleagues!"
"I have contacted others addressing racial equity in STEM and undergraduate research."
"We reached new people, who are now aware of our program and requested resources so they could consider our work for use in the future."
"Several people reached out asking how to become involved in our program. Our presenter collected their contact information for future collaboration."
"I connected with a high school STEM facilitator who is interested in bringing ...[our] competition to Uzbekistan!"
"Our work currently takes place in after-schools in the US, and we were surprised to see how many people from other parts of the world were interested (including a couple from Kenya!) COVID education is a worldwide challenge, and we are thinking about broadening the geographic location of our work."
"The comments from other viewers were really engaging and interesting and made us think more about our project and how to keep it moving forward."
"The feedback generated some considerations for future work/grant ideas."
"[It was] important to view and consider other research projects and hear comments on our work from their points of view."
"The online discussion was very engaging and gratifying. We were asked thoughtful questions and it was an opportunity for our team to reflect on our project and research."
"Our team was very impressed with quality of facilitators' comments and thoughtful questions in the discussion forums."
"Even though our project is just starting, some of the questions were around implementation, which offered us things to think about moving forward."
"The STEM Video For All Showcase is a great way to disseminate projects, learn about other project and connect with others in the field."
"I was so grateful to be able to showcase our project in an accessible way, to a national audience."
"It was nice to get our work out, especially after a year of isolation."
"We used this opportunity to truly "showcase" our work so that teachers and families could more easily see and understand our work..."
"This was a great experience and the supports, training, and written resources on the presenter site were phenomenal! I was so impressed with how the showcase flowed during its run, and the interaction among people. The training webinars for presenters were excellent; I always felt I could reach out to your team for help when needed. Thank you!"
"... The few times that I needed assistance from Showcase staff, they were incredibly responsive, addressing my questions almost immediately. Thanks for putting on this event - it's a lot of fun and a terrific way to learn about the amazing work happening in this field!"
"Keep doing them!!!! They are a fantastic resource for funders and participants alike and make a wonderful historical record as well."