MEDL: CREATING A BROADER IMPACTS RESOURCE IN THE DEPARTMENT OF GEOSCIENCES AT VIRGINIA TECH

Well-planned broader impacts activities are required components of successful research grant proposals submitted to most federal research agencies, including the U.S. National Sciences Foundation (NSF). To ensure their research has high societal impact, principal investigators (PI’s) often reach out to education and/or outreach programs and specialists for assistance. MEDL (The Modeling and Educational Demonstrations Laboratory) is an innovative curriculum materials center, whose mission is to provide and support the use of advanced curriculum material resources for the purpose of increasing and sustaining high impact instructional capacity in STEM education for both formal and informal learning environments. These attributes make MEDL an ideal resource to support the broader impacts activities of PI’s in the Department of Geosciences at Virginia Tech (VT). This presentation provides an overview of MEDL’s broader impacts support capabilities and recent accomplishments that contribute to undergraduate experience in the geosciences. Discussion is intended to gain feedback from the audience on ways to improve MEDL and contribute to building similar resources at institutions outside of the VT Geosciences.