National Science Foundation: Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Education and Human Resources

The National Science Foundation (NSF) plays a leadership role in development and implementation of efforts to enhance and improve STEM education in the United States. Through the NSF Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) initiative, the agency continues to make a substantial commitment to the highest caliber undergraduate STEM education through a Foundation-wide framework of investments. The IUSE: Education and Human Resources (EHR) program is a core NSF undergraduate STEM education program that seeks to improve the effectiveness of undergraduate STEM education for both majors and non-majors. NSF places high value on educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically literate populace. In pursuit of this goal, IUSE: EHR supports projects that have the potential to improve student learning in STEM through development of new curricular materials and methods of instruction, and development of new assessment tools to measure student learning. In addition to innovative work at the frontier of STEM education, this program also encourages replications of research studies at different types of institutions and with different student bodies to produce deeper knowledge about the effectiveness and transferability of findings.

IUSE: EHR also seeks to support projects that have high potential for broader societal impacts, including improved diversity of students and instructors participating in STEM education, professional development for instructors to ensure adoption of new and effective pedagogical techniques that meet the changing needs of students, and projects that promote institutional partnerships for collaborative research and development. IUSE: EHR especially welcomes proposals that will pair well with the efforts of NSF INCLUDES (https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/index.jsp) to develop STEM talent from all sectors and groups in our society. Collaborations are encouraged between IUSE proposals and existing INCLUDES projects, provided the collaboration strengthens both projects.

For all the above objectives, the National Science Foundation invests primarily in evidence-based and evidence-generating approaches to understand and improve STEM learning and learning environments, improve the diversity of STEM students and majors, and prepare STEM majors for the workforce. In addition to contributing to STEM education in the host institution(s), proposals should have the promise of adding more broadly to our understanding of effective teaching and learning practices.

The IUSE: EHR program features two tracks: (1) Engaged Student Learning and (2) Institutional and Community Transformation. Two tiers of projects exist within each track: (i) Exploration and Design and (ii) Development and Implementation.

Amount:
Engaged Student Learning: Exploration and Design projects may be awarded up to $300,000 for up to 3 years; Development and Implementation projects may be awarded up to $600,000 for up to 3 years for Level 1, and between $601,000-$2,000,000 for up to 5 years for Level 2.

Institutional and Community Transformation: Exploration and Design projects may be awarded up to $300,000 for up to 3 years; Development and Implementation projects may be awarded up to $3,000,000 for up to 5 years.

Eligibility: Institutions of higher education; non-profit, non-academic organizations; for-profit organizations; state and local governments; unaffiliated individuals; foreign organizations; other federal agencies.

Link: https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=505082&org=NSF&sel_org=NSF&from=fund

Note: The deadline for Exploration and Design proposals is October 1, 2018; the deadline for Development and Implementation proposals is December 11, 2018.

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