Name: Strategic Partnerships to Support Open Initiatives Across STEM
Start: 2026-10-09T11:50:00-0400
End: 2026-10-09T12:20:00-0400

All sessions are available online except round tables, special activities, and workshops.

Strategic Partnerships to Support Open Initiatives Across STEM

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT

2 Room M

ID: 33178

While STEM disciplines account for a substantial share of undergraduate OER, science education remains underrepresented in the discourse, leadership, and conceptual framing of the open education movement. However, there are many intersections and areas of mutual interest, particularly in the age of Generative AI. In this session, we showcase the many ways that the RIOS Institute has focused on critical intersections within the Open Ecosystem as a way to achieve our mission to transform and decolonize undergraduate science education. We highlight OCTOPUS - an open education and open science curriculum project, VECINA - an academic-community research partnership which has informed the development of course-based undergraduate research experiences, and various projects focused at the intersection of open education and AI. As we take participants through these intersections, we emphasize the understanding of the culture and histories of STEM and how they promote or sometimes counter open ethos. The OCTOPUS Project (Open Collaboration for Transformative Open Pedagogy to support Undergraduate Open Science Education) supports educators to integrate Open Pedagogy in undergraduate Open Science education. By positioning students as co-creators of knowledge and fostering democratic, collaborative, critical, ethical and justice-oriented approaches to science, our goal is to achieve a cultural shift towards universal scientific practice that is open, equitable, and designed to serve the public. The Visualizing Environmental and Community Information for Neighborhood Advocacy (VECINA) project embraces the tradition of open scholarship by creating a collaborative of data researchers between researchers, students, and community members. Open challenges the hierarchies in STEM which dictate who is a researcher. The project itself focuses on making data and its analysis open to other researchers, including student researchers, but also relevant and accessible to the community through community leadership. This challenges and broadens academic STEM definitions of impactful scholarship and research. The scope of these projects have spanned mathematics, biology, computer science, and Latin American studies and the projects within VECINA have spanned healthcare, environmental justice, and education. This version of open challenges the siloed nature of disciplinary research and the spaces in which it occurs while also serving to introduce the next generation of researchers into open science and education.The RIOS Institute also provides numerous opportunities for participants to engage in privacy-protected free spaces to grapple with difficult questions arising for Open Ed in the face of AI. We highlight how some open pedagogies can be enabled by Generative AI, for example by allowing play and exploration. And how Open pedagogy can be leveraged to engage students in critical use of AI through activities such as co-construction of Generative AI class policies, and in student constructed AI tools. The unique role of STEM offers opportunities to shed light on the development and understanding of AI itself. For example, within many STEM classes, the fundamental science underpinnings of AI are discussed, from data analysis and stochasticity to programming and modeling. This new age of accessible Generative AI has spurred a variety of initiatives within STEM focused on AI literacy and navigating the information landscape.

Speakers

Karen Cangialosi

Director of Open Education and Open Science, RIOS Institute

Dr. Karen Cangialosi is a passionate change agent, dedicated educator, and student advocate with national recognition in open education, STEM ed, and digital pedagogy. As a Professor of Biology at Keene State College (now emeritus), she brought open education into the biology curriculum... Read More →

Carrie Diaz Eaton

Professor and Chair/Executive Director, Digital and Computational Studies, Bates College/RIOS Institute

Dr. Carrie Diaz Eaton is Professor and Chair of Digital and Computational Studies at Bates College, and co-founder and Executive Director of the RIOS Institute which focuses on improving postsecondary STEM education ecosystems. They are deeply committed to decolonizing education and... Read More →

Kaitlin Bonner

Associate Professor of Biology/Director of Professional Development, St. John Fisher University/RIOS Institute

Dr. Kaitlin Bonner is an Associate Professor of Biology and Open Education Faculty Fellow at St. John Fisher University. As a passionate educator and student advocate, she brings a deep commitment to making STEM education more inclusive, accessible, and affordable. Her teaching spans... Read More →

Friday October 9, 2026 11:50am - 12:20pm EDT
2 Room M MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA

Presentation

Speaker Modality In-person
Track Hacking the Open Ecosystem and Praxis for the Public Good

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Karen Cangialosi

Carrie Diaz Eaton

Kaitlin Bonner

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Success you have shared X tickets.

OEGlobal 2026

Karen Cangialosi

Carrie Diaz Eaton

Kaitlin Bonner

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