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

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Graduate Assistance in Areas of National Need (GANN)

This grant opportunity provides fellowships for graduate students with excellent academic records who demonstrate financial need and plan to pursue the highest degree available in their course of study at the institution. An absolute priority is for fellowships in an area of national need (i.e., Computer and Information Sciences).

Amount: $130,000 - $260,000

Date due: December 18, 2009

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Microsoft Research Faculty Fellows

Microsoft Research seeks nominees who are advancing computing research with the potential to create significant impact on the state of the art, and who demonstrate the likelihood of becoming thought leaders in the field for the 2010 Microsoft Research Faculty Fellows Program.

Amount: $200,000

Date due: November 16, 2009

The Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship Program is designed to identify, recognize, and support exceptional new faculty members engaged in innovative computing research. The objective of the program is to stimulate and support creative research undertaken by promising researchers who have the potential to make a profound impact on the field of computing in their research disciplines.

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Mozilla Foundation Design Challenge for Web Interface

Mozilla Foundation announces the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge which is inspired by and modeled on the Design Challenge series of events sponsored by Mozilla Labs. Design Challenges are intended to encourage innovation, and experimentation in user interface design for the Web. and provoke thought, facilitate discussion, and inspire future design directions for Firefox, the Mozilla project, and the Web as a whole.

Amount: $4,000

Date due: November 27, 2009

The Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge is divided into three phases: the submission period for mockups that runs until midnight (US Pacific Time) on 27 November, an online course during December 2009 and January 2010, and a face-to-face design camp in March 2010, immediately prior to SXSW Interactive. During the first phase of the Jetpack for Learning Design Challenge participants are asked to produce a concept, mockup and an explanation of their thinking behind it. A mockup can be anything from a low-fi sketch on a napkin to a high-fi video presenting the concept. The Jetpack for Learning team (consisting of Jetpack for Learning instructors and other project staff) will review all submissions. Sixty participants will be selected to participate in a two-month online course to further their ideas and concepts. At the end of the course, 10 will be selected for an all expenses trip to Design Camp.

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Science Master's Program (NSF)

The Science Master's Program prepares graduate students for careers in business, industry,nonprofit organizations, and government agencies by providing them not only with a strong foundation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines, but also with research experiences, internship experiences, and the skills to succeed in those careers. The program is intended to catalyze the creation of institution-based efforts that can be sustained without additional federal funding. This program is also intended to encourage diversity in student participation so as to contribute to a broadly inclusive, well-trained science and engineering workforce.

Amount: $700,000 (across 3 years)

Date due: November 20, 2009

Proposals submitted to the Science Master's Program should describe a STEM based Master's graduate education curriculum broadened with education that provides additional skills, such as through specially tailored courses in business and management, that prepare students to work in business, industry, government agencies, or nonprofit organizations. The fields and training activities should be in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics where there is high or emerging (anticipated) need. Proposals must demonstrate that the proposed programs meet the needs of the intended workplace and that careful market research and collaboration have led to the proposed model.

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Small Business Technology Transfer Program (NSF)

NSF announces the availability of funding for the Small Business Technology Transfer Program in which small business and universities collaborate to stimulate technological innovation in the private sector by strengthening the role of small business concerns in meeting Federal research and development needs.

Amount: $140,000

Due: November 17, 2009

The Small Business Technology Transfer Program (STTR) requires researchers at universities to play a significant intellectual role in the conduct of each STTR project. These university-based researchers, by joining forces with a small company, can spin-off their commercially promising ideas while they remain primarily employed at the research institution. The primary employment of the Principal Investigator (PI) must be with the small business concern at the time of the award. A PI must spend a minimum of two calendar months on an STTR Phase I project.

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Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The National Science Foundation aims to ensure the vitality of the human resource base of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in the United States and to reinforce its diversity by offering approximately 1,654 graduate fellowships in this competition pending availability of funds. The Graduate Research Fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study leading to research-based master’s or doctoral degrees and is intended for students who are in the early stages of their graduate study.

Amount: Graduate Research Fellowship, $30,000; Tuition allowance, $10,500.

Due: November 2, 2009

NSF Fellows are expected to become knowledge experts who can contribute significantly to research, teaching, and innovations in science and engineering. These individuals will be crucial to maintaining and advancing the nation’s technological infrastructure and national security as well as contributing to the economic well being of society at large. The Graduate Research Fellowship Program is designed to provide opportunities for advanced education that prepares students for a broad range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary careers through its strategic investments in intellectual capital.

Applicable disciplines include chemistry, computer and information science, economics, engineering, geosciences, life sciences, mathematics, physics, psychology, and the social sciences.

For more information, click here.