NewFoS Education Overview
This page provides an overview of New Frontiers of Sound (NewFoS) Education and Broader Participation initiatives, which bring research, learning, and mentoring together in intentional ways. The sections below highlight:
- Convergence Education – how educational activities are integrated with research and designed to prepare participants for future opportunities.
- Mentoring Ecosystem – the structure of mentoring across students, postdocs, faculty, and staff, and how collaboration extends across institutions.
- Theoretical and Methodological Foundations – the guiding frameworks and approaches that shape the design and direction of our programs.
These areas collectively show how NewFoS builds connections between education, mentoring, and research to strengthen both individual growth and the broader scientific community.
Integrative strategy
The NewFoS Education and Broader Participation (E&BP) program is built around four interconnected activities that integrate education, workforce preparation, and knowledge transfer with research. These activities include:
- the development of an authoritative, context-based Topological Acoustics (TA) textbook and accompanying digital resources to support instruction and establish a foundation for the TA field;
- a Community College Workshop that provides accessible entry points into TA pathways and introduces students to careers in the TA workforce;
- the Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) program, which cultivates the next generation of TA researchers by engaging undergraduates in immersive research experiences paired with structured mentoring;
- Leadership Programs that prepare participants to become leaders in science and society by strengthening professional skills, mentoring capacity, and leadership abilities—critical components of sustaining a skilled TA workforce.
Together, these efforts form a convergence education program that connects researchers, educators, and students, supports knowledge transfer within NewFoS and across the broader scientific community, and sustains a mentoring ecosystem that integrates research with workforce development goals.
Convergence Education
Center Convergence Education objective. NewFoS obejective is to graduate students and postdocs as technologists, researchers, leaders, and policymakers who are well-versed in the broad science, technology, and societal aspects of the new science of sound. NewFoS will produce a competitive workforce that contributes to society through team-based science-of-sound and engineering solutions, develops marketable products for US economic growth and positive societal impacts, and drives research to advance revolutionary sound applications.
Mentoring Ecosystem
Mentoring Ecosystem objective. NewFoS pursues the following Education and Broader Participation objective: by adopting the methods and principles of educational excellence, NewFoS is creating a multi-institution, transferable Mentoring Ecosystem to develop a resilient culture and recruit, retain, and sustain a competitive workforce. The Mentoring Ecosystem emphasizes richer professional relationships, successful educational experiences, and stronger team dynamics for students, postdocs, and early-career scientists in a collective of innovation. This strategy complements our Convergence Education by: (1) positively impacting mentees and ensuring resilience; (2) revealing and preparing career paths; and (3) building professional skills.
Pedagogical Foundation
Our educational framework integrates multiple evidence-based models into a cohesive, asset-oriented approach to STEM learning and mentoring. At its center is an Asset-Based Mindset, surrounded by the five developmental domains of the LINCSS Framework: Linking Inclusive Narratives to Create STEM Synergy — People, Personal, Place, Practice, and Profession — that shape every NewFoS education program. These domains interact through complementary models that guide how we design, facilitate, and evaluate learning experiences.
Core Frameworks
- Asset-Based Mindset: Recognizes the strengths, experiences, and cultural wealth each learner brings, building confidence, belonging, and innovation.
- LINCSS Framework: Provides the structural foundation for the five domains and centers education on inclusive narratives that create STEM synergy.
- BSCS 5E Instructional Model: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, Evaluate; supports inquiry cycles that help students construct understanding through experimentation and reflection.
- Entering Research Curriculum: Offers structured mentoring and research skill development that strengthens self-efficacy, identity, and belonging.
- Place-Based Learning: Grounds education in the physical, cultural, and community contexts where learning occurs, connecting STEM concepts to local environments and real-world applications.
- Student-Centered Mentoring: Frames mentoring as reciprocal and evidence-based, grounded in empathy, communication, and reflection.
Together, these models form a Mentoring Ecosystem within a Convergence Education approach, where scientific inquiry, personal development, and social context intersect to prepare students for purposeful, collaborative, and innovative careers.
The NewFoS Education Framework
Integrating an Asset-Based mindset with the LINCSS 5P domains and four complementary instructional approaches, enabling aligned implementation and evaluation across diverse New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center programs.
From Independent Programs to a Unified Framework
After the first years of implementing the Community College Workshop, Student-Centered Leadership modules, and the REM program, assessment data and program experience revealed clear and consistent threads across these initiatives, despite their independent development and structural complexity.
In response, the Education and Broadening Participation team convened to synthesize these insights into a unified framework that intentionally connects and guides all Center education programs.
Community College Workshop
Foundational Topological Acoustics engagement for community college learners.
Student-Centered Leadership
Modules supporting identity and professional development.
REM Program
Research Experience and Mentoring for undergraduate students.
Topological Acoustics Textbook
A modular, inquiry-driven curricular ecosystem connecting foundational knowledge, conceptual understanding, and research participation.
The Asset-Based Mindset
We began with what is central to all programs and what we seek to cultivate: students. Research on student development indicates that adopting an Asset-Based mindset grounded in established educational theory is critical to building effective STEM learning environments that support student success, identity development, and persistence.
The Asset-Based mindset serves as the organizing principle of this framework, shaping how all approaches are selected, integrated, and enacted across programs. Using this framework, we recognize the strengths, experiences, and cultural wealth that all individuals connected to the Center bring, fostering confidence, belonging, and innovation.
No single member or student shares the same background or experiences; rather, there exists a diversity of academic, cultural, and experiential knowledge that creates a robust foundation for innovation, creativity, and growth.
What Asset-Based Thinking Cultivates
- Recognition of individual strengths and cultural wealth
- Confidence and sense of belonging in STEM spaces
- Innovation through diverse perspectives
- Inclusive learning environments for all learners
Looking Beyond the Artifact
How an archaeological perspective became a framework for understanding people.
The framework used throughout NewFoS emerged through the collaborative work of Sara Chavarria and Cory Knox. While working with STEM programs, Chavarria observed that professionals often focused on explaining their work without considering the broader experiences of the students they were trying to mentor.
Drawing on her background as a professional archaeologist and lithic specialist, Chavarria approached this challenge through a familiar lens. Archaeologists rarely reconstruct the past through written records alone. Instead, they interpret communities by examining the traces people leave behind. A projectile point, for example, is more than a stone tool—it is evidence of the people who created it, the environment in which they lived, the needs they sought to meet, the practices they developed, and the expertise they cultivated.
- Who were the people?
- Where did they live?
- What needs shaped their decisions?
- What practices did they develop?
- What expertise made those practices possible?
“Technology is not technology for technology’s sake. It exists to serve people, places, and communities.” Chavarria to REM students, 2026
The LINCSS 5P Framework
This mindset informs how we design and support learners’ STEM and NewFoS identity development. We frame this process using the LINCSS 5P framework: People, Personal, Place, Practice, and Profession.
People
How research impacts individuals and communities; who benefits or is affected; and who influences the scientist, the research process, and areas of inquiry.
Personal
How individual experiences, beliefs, and values shape and inform research questions, approaches, and interests.
Place
The contextual environment in which research occurs, including geographic, institutional, sociopolitical, and historical factors.
Practice
The methods, tools, instruments, and processes used in research and how they shape knowledge production.
Profession
The culture of the field, including norms, collaboration, dissemination, career pathways, and professional identity.
Making Identity Development Visible and Measurable
We posit that intentional engagement across these domains strengthens learners’ sense of belonging and supports their recognition as STEM practitioners. By explicitly integrating and labeling programs and workshops with these domains, identity development becomes visible, structured, measurable, and adaptable for ongoing evaluation.
Student-Centered Mentoring
Developmental relationships supporting academic and personal growth.
Place-Based Learning
Situating STEM education within real-world, community contexts.
Entering Research Curriculum
Structured scaffolding for undergraduate research experiences.
BSCS 5E Instructional Model
Inquiry-based learning through five structured phases.
Student-Centered Mentoring & Place-Based Learning
Student-Centered Mentoring
Drawing on mentoring theories that highlight psychosocial and career development functions, this approach positions mentors not only as technical guides but as facilitators of identity formation, belonging, and professional navigation.
Mentoring is intentionally aligned across all 5P domains, supporting learners in connecting their experiences, relationships, and future pathways to their work.
Place-Based Learning
This approach situates STEM education within real-world contexts, emphasizing the importance of environment, community, and lived experience in shaping learning.
Place-Based learning directly activates the Place domain while strengthening connections to People and Personal by grounding learning in meaningful and relevant contexts.
Entering Research & the BSCS 5E Model
Entering Research Curriculum
This curriculum provides structured scaffolding for undergraduate research experiences, focusing on research communication, ethics, project ownership, resilience, mentoring relationships, and disciplinary thinking.
Rather than treating research as a set of discrete tasks, Entering Research emphasizes participation in research communities and supports learners in developing as emerging scholars.
BSCS 5E Instructional Model
The BSCS 5E model offers a structured, inquiry-based approach through five phases: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate.
An Integrated, Counterbalancing System
These approaches are intentionally layered and integrated, allowing each approach to activate multiple 5P domains simultaneously. This design ensures that no single aspect of STEM identity development is privileged at the expense of others.
Learning experiences are co-constructed as interconnected systems, where mentoring relationships, contextualized learning, structured research experiences, and inquiry-based instruction collectively support the development of well-rounded STEM practitioners.
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License & Recommended Citation
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The NewFoS Education Framework © 2026 by New Frontiers of Sound Science and Technology Center, University of Arizona is licensed under CC BY 4.0
