<div dir="ltr"><div>1) NSF has announced a new program: <b>Improving Undergraduate STEM Education</b>. The only information available is the program synopsis--here it is in full:<br><p style="margin-left:40px">A well-prepared, innovative science, technology, engineering and
mathematics (STEM) workforce is crucial to the Nation's health and
economy. Indeed, recent policy actions and reports have drawn attention
to the opportunities and challenges inherent in increasing the number of
highly qualified STEM graduates, including STEM teachers. Priorities
include educating students to be leaders and innovators in emerging and
rapidly changing STEM fields as well as educating a scientifically
literate populace; both of these priorities depend on the nature and
quality of the undergraduate education experience. In addressing these
STEM challenges and priorities, the National Science Foundation invests
in research-based and research-generating approaches to understanding
STEM learning; to designing, testing, and studying curricular change; to
wide dissemination and implementation of best practices; and to
broadening participation of individuals and institutions in STEM fields.
The goals of these investments include: increasing student retention in
STEM, to prepare students well to participate in science for tomorrow,
and to improve students' STEM learning outcomes.</p><p style="margin-left:40px">Recognizing
disciplinary differences and priorities, NSF's investment in research
and development in undergraduate STEM education encompasses a range of
approaches. These approaches include: experiential learning,
assessment/metrics of learning and practice, scholarships, foundational
education research, professional development/institutional change,
formal and informal learning environments, and undergraduate
disciplinary research. Both individually and integrated in a range of
combinations, these approaches can lead to outcomes including:
developing the STEM and STEM-related workforce, advancing science,
broadening participation in STEM, educating a STEM-literate populace,
improving K-12 STEM education, encouraging life-long learning, and
building capacity in higher education.</p><p style="margin-left:40px">The Division of
Undergraduate Education (DUE), in collaboration with other NSF
directorates, continues to support research and development leading to
and propagating interventions that improve both the quality and quantity
of STEM graduates. A number of recent publications provide guidance.
For example, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and
Technology (PCAST) report, <em>Engage to Excel</em>, recommends
widespread adoption of empirically validated teaching practices that
engage students in "active learning," as an important means to enhance
retention of STEM majors. Other recommendations include increased use of
discovery-based laboratories and course-based research. The National
Research Council report, <em>Discipline-based Education Research: Understanding and Improving Learning in Undergraduate Science and Engineering</em>,
provides an analysis of effective practices and a research agenda for
continuing to build the knowledge base on how to improve undergraduate
STEM education. The <em>Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development</em>
offer guidance on building the evidence base in STEM learning. Research
and development efforts that increase our understanding of effective
undergraduate STEM teaching and learning provide the foundation for
building the STEM workforce of tomorrow and improving scientific
literacy. </p><p style="margin-left:40px">Recognizing that the preparation of a
globally-competitive workforce, including future teachers, and a
scientifically literate populace requires excellent STEM education, DUE
supports the improvement of the undergraduate STEM education enterprise
through funding research on design, development, and wide-spread
implementation of effective STEM learning and teaching knowledge and
practice, as well as foundational research on student learning. DUE
supports projects that build on both fundamental research in
undergraduate STEM education and prior research and development that
provide theoretical and empirical justification for the proposed
efforts. Proposals should describe projects that build on available
evidence and theory, and that will generate evidence and build
knowledge.</p><p style="margin-left:40px">NSF accepts unsolicited proposals to support projects
that address immediate challenges and opportunities facing undergraduate
STEM education, as well as those that anticipate new structures and
functions of the undergraduate learning and teaching enterprise. In
addition, NSF accepts unsolicited proposals for developing Ideas Labs in
biology, engineering, and geosciences that will bring together relevant
disciplinary and education research expertise to produce research
agendas that address discipline-specific workforce development needs.</p>As of last summer, there were plans to fold the three programs below into a new program to be called Catalyzing Advances in Undergraduate STEM Education (CAUSE):<br>
</div><ul><li><a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5488">Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Talent Expansion Program</a> (STEP) </li><li><a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5741">Transforming Undergraduate Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics</a> (TUES) </li>
<li><a href="http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=504889">Widening Implementation & Demonstration of Evidence Based Reforms</a> (WIDER) </li></ul><div><div><div><div class="gmail_extra">TUES and WIDER have no published dates for future competitions, and NSF pulled the December STEP competition yesterday. It sounds as though this new "Improving Undergraduate STEM Education" is what was planned to be CAUSE.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Proposals are due February 4, 2014. There are no funding amounts specified.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><div><div style="background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255,255,255)">
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<span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(187,0,0);font-weight:bold">Christopher Andersen</span><br>Director<br><span style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:12px;line-height:18px;background:none repeat scroll 0% 0% rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(187,0,0)">STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) Initiatives</span> <br>
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