The Equity and Ethics (E&E) Committee is excited to update you on some of the highlights from the NARST 2016 annual international conference. First, we would like to welcome our new committee members: Senetta Bancroft, Rekha Koul, Lizette Ramos, and Melody Russell. And we want to thank our former chair, Jerome Shaw, for his wonderful leadership, and three members who completed their service as members of the E&E Committee: Brian Fortney, Deb Morrison, and Leon Walls.

The E&E Committee offered three academic activities and one social activity at the 2016 conference. We thank all of the participants, supporters, and organizers for the success of these activities, described below.

Pre-Conference Workshop

This year’s pre-conference workshop was “Toward Equity and Justice: Scientific Literacy as a Human Right.” The aim of the workshop was to engage participants with the call for science education to be seen as a civic-minded process and to confront the need for scientific literacy as a human rights initiative. Discussions by leading scholars addressed the benefits and limitations of scientific literacy as articulated in the literature, and participants brought artifacts (video-clips, excerpts from field notes, etc.) to share and discuss. Forty-eight participants signed up prior to the conference, and a total of 60 people participated in the workshop.

E&E Committee Sponsored Session

Mirroring that of the 2016 conference, the theme for this year’s sponsored symposium was “Diversity and Equity in Science Education: Voices from across the Globe.” Panelists from Nigeria, Israel, South Korea, Luxembourg, and the US discussed equity and justice issues in their contexts to inform the audience about the diversity of these issues across the globe.

New Scholars Symposium

This annual symposium highlighted our 2015 Basu Scholars in an interactive poster session titled “Equity and Justice: Perspectives from Emerging Scholars.” We would like to announce the 2016 Basu scholars: Sahar Alameh, Tasneem Anwar, Sumreen Asim, Domonique Bulls, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Corey Knox, Lynnsay Marsan, Rebecca Matz, Ayana McCoy, Olayinka Mohorn, Justina Ogodo, Catherine Quinlan, Suzanna Roman, Diane Silva Pimentel, Enrique Suarez, and Dina Verdin. These scholars will be invited to attend the Pre-Conference Workshop and present their work in the New Scholars Symposium at the 2017 NARST annual international conference.

Equity Dinner

The E&E Committee held the 18th annual Equity Dinner aboard a ship on Baltimore Harbor. During the dinner, the participants shared their personal and professional news including first paper publications, promotions, new babies, etc.