OpportunityTitle: Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers
AdditionalInformationOnEligibility: *Organization Limit: Proposals may only be submitted by the following:  ITEST: Only U.S. organizations located in the U.S. with an educational mission are eligible to apply; see the NSF Grant Proposal Guide (GPG)for further information.  Eligibility for Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) is limited to institutions of higher education (including two- and four-year colleges) accredited in, and having a campus located in the US. If the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM educational or related research, then all categories of proposers identified in the NSF Grant Proposal Guide are eligible to submit.  *PI Limit:  The Principal Investigator for an Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) proposal must be the university provost or equivalent chief academic officer, unless the proposal is exclusively for I3 STEM educational or related research.
Description: The 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 students&#8217; capacity to participate in it may be implemented and studied. ITEST projects 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&#8217;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?Four types of projects are invited: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&#8217; 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.Scale-up projects implement and test models to prepare students for information technology or the STEM workforce of the future in a large-scale setting such as at state or national level. A scale-up project must be based on evidence of demonstrated success from an existing strategy for students or teachers. Conferences and Workshops target STEM educators (from both the formal and informal education communities), educational researchers, and evaluators. The proposed conferences would be expected to contribute to the development of a research agenda on K-12 STEM workforce preparation and development issues, workforce participation, and cyberlearning. Conferences or workshops must be designed to bring together individuals with expertise in technology and STEM education, career development, cognitive science, sociology, anthropology, science fields, and other communities that are invested in STEM workforce careers. Evaluation approaches for innovative STEM and ICT workforce motivation, preparation, and development models are also sought.Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3) projects enable faculty, administrators, and others in institutions to think and act strategically about the creative integration of NSF-funded awards, with particular emphasis on awards managed through programs in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources (EHR), but not limited to those awards. For Fiscal Year 2009, proposals are being solicited in nine EHR programs that advance I3 goals: CREST, GSE, HBCU-UP, ITEST, LSAMP, MSP, Noyce, RDE, and TCUP.
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CloseDateExplanation: February 16, 2010  ITEST  Deadline extended until Tuesday, Feb 16  April 07, 2010 Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3)