NSF Announcement and Guidelines

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NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION:
ELEMENTARY, SECONDARY, AND INFORMAL EDUCATION

Program Announcement and Guidelines
AN EXCERPT FROM A 67 PAGE DOCUMENT
DEADLINE: 15 August 1999

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3. TEACHER AND STUDENT DEVELOPMENT THROUGH RESEARCH EXPERIENCE PROJECTS

(Note: "SMT" = Science-Math-Technology)

.....The integration of research and education is a powerful paradigm for SMT education. ..Providing teachers and students with exciting opportunities to work beside practicing scientific and technical personnel results in personal growth and the development of research activities that can be transported back to classrooms.

Categories of Projects. ..Teacher Enhancement, "TE," will support projects that involve teachers where research is a means of professional development and projects that involve teachers and students in research. .. Categories of projects include Research Experiences for Teacher Projects and Research Experiences for Teachers and Students Projects.

Research Experiences for Teachers Projects...Teachers gain insight into scientific and technological processes when given the opportunity to work beside practicing scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and technologists in a researchrich environment. .. These opportunities refresh and deepen the teachers' understanding of SMT concepts and scientific processes.

Eligibility. .. Higher education institutions and advanced federal and industrial research and development (R&D) facilities may submit proposals individually and/or in collaboration.

Staff... Senior staff (e.g., those with major responsibility for teacher selection, supervision of research and pedagogical activities) should be college or university faculty; active researchers in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology employed in academia, industry, or Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs); educators in these disciplines; or education researchers. .. Staffing levels must allow for substantive one-on-one or small group interactions with participants... [NOTE: .. Any proposals under this category that originate from federal agencies and FFRDCs may not include costs related to Civil Service Salaries for federal scientists and engineers.]

Recruitment... Participants must be recruited from among teachers of science, mathematics, and/or technology at the middle- or secondary school level whose background and teaching assignments are matched with the project' s research focus... Proposals must detail recruitment, selection, and placement plans, especially as they relate to involvement of women, minorities, the physically disabled and teachers from resource-poor school districts. .. Lack of financial resources should not prevent participation of any eligible teacher, and proposals must include a plan for providing necessary support (e.g., travel, room, and board) for those with limited resources.

Duration. ..Projects are expected to last from three-to-five years.

Activities. .. Participants must engage in meaningful R&D summer activities for a minimum of six weeks that are designed to broaden and deepen scientific and technological knowledge. .. Activities must clearly relate to well-articulated goals and objectives and include mechanisms for translating research experiences to the classroom. Proposals should clearly describe provisions for meaningful academic-year follow-up and continued dialogue among participants... There also should be a plan to assess the extent to which the research activity changes subsequent practices in the classroom and a mechanism to report the resulting data to NSF.

(NOTE THE FOLLOWING !!!!!)

.....Research Experiences for Teachers AND Students Projects (TE) anticipates supporting projects, targeted at the middle and secondary levels (grades 7-12), that demonstrate a range of innovative and cost-effective approaches for engaging teachers and students in meaningful SMT research experiences. Participating teacher/student teams (generally from the same school) are expected to work in small groups with researchers and technologists in settings that range from research laboratories to field sites. .. Research experiences should lead to in-depth mastery of scientific and mathematical concepts and to the development of measurement and analytic skills. ..Teacher/student teams, working with researchers during the summer and in subsequent follow-up activities, are expected to translate the research investigations into meaningful classroom experiences. .. Two types of research participation projects are appropriate for funding consideration:

Research Apprenticeships for Teacher/Student Teams. Teachers and students participate directly in research project conducted by scientists, mathematicians, and/or technologists. .. Apprenticeships would typically involve working at the research site for a period of at least four-to-six weeks during the summer and include follow-up activities during the school year.

Research, Large-scale Data Collection, and Analysis for Teachers and Students. ... Certain research projects lend themselves to large-scale data collection and/or implementation of research experiences that can be integrated into school curricula. .. TE will support projects that forge partnerships between practicing researchers and teacher/student participants through four-to-six week summer (or equivalent, intensive academic year) experiences and follow-up activities, with the expectation that participants transport these research activities back to whole schools or classrooms... School-based activities should include gathering, analyzing, and communicating data derived from natural phenomena, museum collections, or on-line databases. .. Proposals must identify the focus of study, hypotheses and issues, data collection protocols, and data analysis techniques. .. Projects should build a research community, bringing together teams of teachers and students to report research findings and/or use electronic communications to continue the dialogue among researcher, teacher, and students in disparate geographic locations.

.....Projects that involve teachers and students are expected to be three-to-five years in duration... In addition to the criteria described above, proposals should describe:

recruitment strategies for selection of student and teacher participants (at a ratio not to exceed 3:1);
selection procedures to ensure participation of high-ability and/or high-potential students in summer research activities;
relevance of the planned research to school curricula and demonstrated commitments by school administrators to provide resources for implementing related instructional classroom activities;
content of scientific ethics and career awareness sessions;
an evaluation strategy for demonstrating the value-added to the SMT education of teachers and students and for identifying factors that lead to the project's effectiveness;
how data documenting the impact of the research experience on classroom practices will be provided to NSF,
how effective models will be institutionalized over time by the submitting organization, and
plans for ensuring continuation of the project after NSF support ceases.

.....Cost-sharing/Co-Funding. .. Participating organizations are expected to provide substantial cost-sharing. .. Only items allowable under the applicable cost principles, if charged to the project, can be included as cost-sharing... For example, cost-sharing may take the form of participant stipends; staff release time to work with teachers as mentors during project and follow-up activities; donation of relevant materials, supplies, and equipment for implementing related classroom activities in participants' schools; and room and board for participants. .. For further information on cost-sharing, see section, "Preparation and Submission of Full Proposals. "

.....Evaluation... Proposals should clearly describe formative and summative evaluation plans. .. Formative evaluation should provide a strategy for strengthening the project through continual feedback from participants, staff, and others. ..Summative evaluation should include data on the project's success in enhancing participants' disciplinary knowledge, instructional skills, classroom practice, and attitude toward science and technology.

.....Budget. ..Proposals may request no more than $400,000 per year. .. Cost-effectiveness is used as one criteria to evaluate the proposal.

.....Partners. .. Federal laboratories or facilities are expected to join NSF as full partners in co-funding the project. .. Both cost-sharing and co-funding commitments will be considered in proposal review and will be a condition of any resulting award. .. The proposal must clearly identify the amount and source of cost-sharing and co-funding to allow NSF to determine its impact on the proposed project.

.....Institutionalization... NSF seeks to support development of effective models that will be institutionalized by the submitting organization over time. .. Plans for ensuring continuation of the project after NSF support ceases must be clearly described in the proposal.

End of excerpt.
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