University Research Instrumentation Program (Department of Defense)

The Department of Defense (DoD) announces the Fiscal Year 2011 Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), a part of the University Research Initiative (URI). DURIP is designed to improve the capabilities of U.S. institutions of higher education (hereafter referred to as “universities”) to conduct research and to educate scientists and engineers in areas important to national defense, by providing funds for the acquisition of research equipment. This announcement seeks proposals to purchase instrumentation in support of research in areas of interest to the DoD. A central purpose of the DURIP is to provide equipment to enhance research-related education. Therefore proposals must address the impact of the equipment on the institution’s ability to educate students, through research, in disciplines important to DoD missions.

Amount: $50,000 - $1,000,000 (equipment grants)

Date due: September 14, 2010

For more information, click here.

Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices

Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices
March 24-26, 2011
Miami, Florida
Call for Proposals Deadline: August 31, 2010

Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL), in partnership with AAC&U, announces the 2011 Network for Academic Renewal conference, Engaged STEM Learning: From Promising to Pervasive Practices. This interactive, hands-on conference will help campuses adapt, scale up, and sustain effective practices in STEM teaching and learning.

The conference is designed for participants who wish to develop faculty and institutional leadership in STEM reform, broaden student participation and success in STEM fields, better assess engaged STEM learning in both the majors and general education, and connect the revitalization of STEM learning with ongoing campus work inLiberal Education and America’s Promise (LEAP).

We invite proposals on five key themes:

• Expanding the STEM Pipeline through Student Success
• Creating Integrative and Interdisciplinary STEM Environments
• Assessing STEM Learning
• Enhancing STEM Learning through Technology
• Scaling Up and Sustaining Pedagogies of Engagement

Learn more about this conference and the call for proposals online.

For more information, please call 202-387-3760 or write tonetwork@aacu.org.

Ethics in Science, Mathematics & Engineering Online Resource Center

The Ethics in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Online Resource Center competition proposes to fund one award to support a multidisciplinary team of researchers who will create an online resource center that develops, compiles, and maintains resources related to ethics in science, mathematics, and engineering. The research team's focus will be to gather existing information, generate new knowledge, and create interactive tools that will help scientists and engineers incorporate ethical issues and reasoning into their pedagogy and research. The online resource center should be creative, comprehensive, accessible, and constantly evolving. Thus, it should incorporate strategies and techniques to keep the Ethics in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering center relevant and up to date. Engineering, mathematics, and science refers to all of the fields that NSF supports; this includes the social sciences.

Amount: $5m

Date due: April 30, 2010 (Letter of intent); June 3, 2010 (Proposal)

For more information, click here.

Innovative Technology Experiences for Students & Teachers

The Innovative Technology Experiences for Students & Teachers (ITEST) program responds to current concerns and projections about the growing demand for professionals and information technology workers in the U.S. and seeks solutions to help ensure the breadth and depth of the STEM workforce. ITEST supports research studies to address questions about how to find solutions. It also supports the development, implementation, testing, and scale-up of implementation models. A large variety of possible approaches to improving the STEM workforce and to building student's capacity to participate in it may be implemented and studied. ITESTprojects may include students or teachers, kindergarten through high school age, and any area of the STEM workforce. Projects that explore cyberlearning, specifically learning with cyberinfrastructure tools such as networked computing and communications technologies in K-12 settings, are of special interest.

This program is interested in addressing such questions as: What does it take to effectively interest and prepare students to participate in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce of the future? What are the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that students need in order to participate productively in the changing STEM workforce and be innovators, particularly in STEM-related networked computing and information and communication technology (ICT) areas? How do they acquire them? How can the Nation’s burgeoning cyberinfrastructure be harnessed as a tool for STEM learning in classrooms and informal learning environments? What will ensure that the nation has the capacity it needs to participate in transformative, innovative STEM advances? How can we assess and predict inclination to participate in the STEM fields and how can we measure and study impact of various models to encourage that participation?

Research projects enrich the understanding of issues related to enlarging the STEM workforce. Research projects may conduct efficacy and effectiveness studies of intervention models, conduct longitudinal studies of efforts to engage students in the STEM areas, develop instruments to assess engagement, persistence, and other relevant constructs of student motivation, or conduct studies to identify predictors of student inclination to pursue STEM career trajectories. The program is especially interested in projects that target students from groups that are underserved and underrepresented in STEM and ICT-intensive careers, including those residing in rural and economically disadvantaged communities.Strategies projects design, implement, and evaluate models for classroom, after-school, summer, virtual, and/or year-round learning experiences for students and/or teachers. The strategies are intended to encourage students’ readiness for, and their interest and participation in, the STEM workforce of the future. Strategies project proposals must describe the anticipated contribution to the research knowledge base about STEM career preparation in addition to immediate impacts on participants.

Amount: $300,000 - $5m

Date due: April 7, 2010

For more information, click here.